Ectocarpus : an evo-devo model for the brown algae
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(2020) 11:19 Coelho et al. EvoDevo https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-020-00164-9
Open Access
REVIEW
Ectocarpus: an evo‑devo model for the brown algae Susana M. Coelho1* , Akira F. Peters2, Dieter Müller3 and J. Mark Cock1
Abstract Ectocarpus is a genus of filamentous, marine brown algae. Brown algae belong to the stramenopiles, a large supergroup of organisms that are only distantly related to animals, land plants and fungi. Brown algae are also one of only a small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity. For many years, little information was available concerning the molecular mechanisms underlying multicellular development in the brown algae, but this situation has changed with the emergence of Ectocarpus as a model brown alga. Here we summarise some of the main questions that are being addressed and areas of study using Ectocarpus as a model organism and discuss how the genomic information, genetic tools and molecular approaches available for this organism are being employed to explore developmental questions in an evolutionary context. Keywords: Ectocarpus, Life-cycle, Sex determination, Gametophyte, Sporophyte, Brown algae, Marine, Complex multicellularity, Phaeoviruses Natural habitat and life cycle Ectocarpus is a genus of small, filamentous, multicellular, marine brown algae within the order Ectocarpales. Brown algae belong to the stramenopiles (or Heterokonta) (Fig. 1a), a large eukaryotic supergroup that is only distantly related to animals, plants and fungi. The stramenopiles include the macroscopic multicellular brown algae but also microbial algae (e.g., diatoms), diverse free-living heterotrophic or mixotrophic protists and important pathogens of animals and plants (e.g., Blastocystis or oomycetes). Brown algae or brown seaweeds are unique among stramenopiles (or heterokonts) in developing into multicellular forms with differentiated tissues, but they reproduce by means of flagellated spores and gametes that closely resemble cells of other heterokonts.
*Correspondence: coelho@sb‑roscoff.fr 1 CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UPMC University Paris 06, Algal Genetics Group, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, 29688 Roscoff, France Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Ectocarpus is a cosmopolitan genus, occurring worldwide in temperate and subtropical regions, and has been collected on all continents except Antarctica [1]. It is present mainly on rocky shores where it grows on abiotic (rocks, pebbles, dead shells) and biotic (other algae, seagrass) substrata (Fig. 1b), and as a fouling organism it also colonises artificial substrata. It is found from the sublittoral to high intertidal pools, but it does not tolerate desiccation [2]. Ectocarpus sp. from Peru and northern Chile (SE Pacific) is the best studied species in the genus, and has become an established model for developmental biology and evolutionary questions (see below). While most species are exclusively marine, some species s
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