Green algae
Green algae are the photosynthetic ancestors of all land plants.
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Green algae are chlorophyll-containing autotrophic organisms that include the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its sister group containing Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta.[1] There are about 22,000 species of green algae, ranging from single cells to macroscopic seaweeds.[2] The monophyletic group Viridiplantae, also called kingdom Plantae, encompasses both green algae and embryophytes.[2]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Phycology, Botany
- Classification
- Viridiplantae (green plants), including Chlorophyta and Streptophyta
Facts from the source article.
Biology and range
Green algae have chloroplasts with chlorophyll a and b, beta carotene, and xanthophylls in stacked thylakoids.[3] Green algae include unicellular and colonial flagellates, coccoid forms, filaments, and multicellular seaweeds.[2] Species of Trebouxia and Trentepohlia form lichens with fungi.[4] Trentepohlia can live independently on humid soil, rocks, or tree bark.[4]
The macroalga Prasiola crispa forms large carpets on humid soil in the Antarctic.[4] Cellulose is a typical component of green algal cell walls, and these organisms store starch as a carbohydrate reserve.[3] Flat cristae are a characteristic feature of the mitochondria found in every green alga.[5] A unicellular flagellate is considered the ancestral form from which green algae evolved.[6]
What the specialist sources record
The 2015 book "Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life" describes green algae as having haplobiontic and diplobiontic life cycles.[7][8] Diplobiontic species like Ulva alternate between haploid and diploid multicellular forms.[7][8] The diploid zygote in haplobiontic species undergoes meiosis to produce haploid cells.[7][8] All land plants share a diplobiontic common ancestor.[7][8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The genome of Prasinoderma coloniale unveils the existence of a third phylum within green plants", Nature Ecology & Evolution, 22 June 2020, p. 1220–1231; "Plants", Current Biology, June 2011, p. R417–22; "The plant tree of life: an overview and some points of view", American Journal of Botany, October 2004, p. 1437–45 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How many species of algae are there?", Journal of Phycology, October 2012, p. 1057–63 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burrows 1991. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 2 Natural History Museum, London.; "Algae An introduction to phycology", Cambridge University Press, 1995; When the lights go out: the evolutionary fate of free-living colorless green algae; "Plant systematics, a phylogenetic approach.", Sinauer Associates Inc., 2002, p. 156 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Holzinger, "The terrestrial green macroalga Prasiola calophylla (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta): Ecophysiological performance under water-limiting conditions", Protoplasma, 2017, p. 1755–1767; Carvalho, "De novo Assembly and Annotation of the Antarctic Alga Prasiola crispa Transcriptome", Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Letter to the editor", Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 1992, p. 331–332 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Leliaert, "Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution of the Green Algae", Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 2012, p. 1–46 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Green algae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Trillo, "Evolutionary transitions to multicellular life: Principles and mechanisms", Springer, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Open Library record, ISBN 9789401796422 ("Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Green algae (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Plant Families & Taxonomy
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Green algae (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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