Plant Terrestrialization

Plant terrestrialization is acknowledged as one of the major evolutionary transitions in which plants went from living exclusively in water to conquering land. Land plants evolved from streptophyte algae. However,there are also chlorophyte algae, a sister lineage of land plants and streptophyte algae, that can be morphologically complex and live on land.

There are model organisms for land plants and streptophyte algae, but no morphologically complex models exists for chlorophyte algae.

Thus, in our lab we are establishing Draparnaldia as a new chlorophyte algal model and using it to study alternative mechanisms for morphological complexity and terrestrialization in plants.