A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity.
A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity independently and during very different time periods by acquiring genes that enable cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, and cell differentiation, researchers report. Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral origins.
Macroalgae live in both fresh and seawater and are complex multicellular organisms with distinct organs and tissues, in contrast to microalgae, which are microscopic and unicellular. There are three main groups of macroalgae -- red , green , and brown -- that independently evolved multicellularity at very different times and in very different environmental conditions.
They found that macroalgae acquired many new genes that are not present in microalgae on their road to multicellularity. For all three lineages, key acquisitions included genes involved in cell adhesion , cell differentiation , cell communication, and inter-cellular transport. "By no means have we exhaustively explored all that there is in these genomes," says senior author and systems biologist Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani of New York University Abu Dhabi."There is a ton of information that we have not touched in the present paper that can be mined by whoever who is interested."
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