Land plants' closest algal relatives evolved multicellular growth repeatedly, genetic analysis suggests
What did the algae that gave rise to the first land plants look like? A research team led by the University of Göttingen and including the universities of Maastricht and Innsbruck and Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales has now taken a detailed look at one of the most important groups for answering this question: the Zygnematophyceae, the closest living algal relatives of land plants. These…
Scientists have uncovered new insights into the evolution of land plants by studying the closest algal relatives, the Zygnematophyceae. This group of algae, which includes familiar filamentous algae like Spirogyra, shares a close relationship with land plants. Researchers from the University of Göttingen, along with colleagues from Maastricht and Innsbruck, analyzed a comprehensive dataset covering more than 100 species and 2,000 genes.
Their findings, published in PLOS Biology, indicate that the common ancestor of all Zygnematophyceae was likely a single-celled alga. Surprisingly, filamentous growth evolved multiple times independently, suggesting that multicellular growth in these algae did not result from a single evolutionary transition. Instead, it emerged repeatedly from simpler ancestral forms.
Some molecular components associated with land plant functions were already present in the Zygnematophyceae, indicating that these evolutionary toolkit elements were dynamic and widely distributed across algal lineages. The study underscores the importance of considering the broader diversity of zygnematophyte species to better understand the complex evolutionary history of land plants.
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