Algal genome provides insights into first land plants

In order to shift from water to land – a transition that still puzzles scientists – plants had to protect themselves from drying out and from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and they had to develop structures to support themselves without the buoyancy provided by water. Researchers including BTI’s Zhangjun Fei found footprints of all these adaptations in the genome of Penium margaritaceum, a single-celled freshwater alga that belongs to the closest lineage to terrestrial plants. Their work provides many clues to how aquatic plants first colonized land.

Read more in the Cornell Chronicle here.