The green seaweed Ulva: a model system to study morphogenesis

Wichard, T.; Charrier, B.; Mineur, B.; Bothwell, J.H.; De Clerck, O.; Coates, J.C.

doi:10.3389/fpls.2015.00072

The green seaweed Ulva: a model system to study morphogenesis

Wichard, T.; Charrier, B.; Mineur, B.; Bothwell, J.H.; De Clerck, O.; Coates, J.C.

Authors

T. Wichard

B. Charrier

B. Mineur

Dr John Bothwell j.h.bothwell@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

O. De Clerck

J.C. Coates

Abstract

Green macroalgae, mostly represented by the Ulvophyceae, the main multicellular branch of the Chlorophyceae, constitute important primary producers of marine and brackish coastal ecosystems. Ulva or sea lettuce species are some of the most abundant representatives, being ubiquitous in coastal benthic communities around the world. Nonetheless the genus also remains largely understudied. This review highlights Ulva as an exciting novel model organism for studies of algal growth, development and morphogenesis as well as mutualistic interactions. The key reasons that Ulva is potentially such a good model system are: (i) patterns of Ulva development can drive ecologically important events, such as the increasing number of green tides observed worldwide as a result of eutrophication of coastal waters, (ii) Ulva growth is symbiotic, with proper development requiring close association with bacterial epiphytes, (iii) Ulva is extremely developmentally plastic, which can shed light on the transition from simple to complex multicellularity and (iv) Ulva will provide additional information about the evolution of the green lineage.

Citation

Wichard, T., Charrier, B., Mineur, B., Bothwell, J., De Clerck, O., & Coates, J. (2015). The green seaweed Ulva: a model system to study morphogenesis. Frontiers in Plant Science, 6, Article 72. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00072

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 26, 2015
Online Publication Date	Feb 19, 2015
Publication Date	Feb 19, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 7, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Apr 6, 2016
Journal	Frontiers in Plant Science
Electronic ISSN	1664-462X
Publisher	Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	6
Article Number	72
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00072
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1389846

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2015 Wichard, Charrier, Mineur, Bothwell, De Clerck and Coates. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.