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Ulva: An emerging green seaweed model for systems biology
Blomme, J.; Wichard, T.; Jacobs, T.B.; De Clerck, O. (2023). Ulva: An emerging green seaweed model for systems biology. J. Phycol. 59(3): 433-440. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpy.13341
In: Journal of Phycology. Blackwell Science: New York. ISSN 0022-3646; e-ISSN 1529-8817, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keywords
    Algae
    Gene expression
    Seaweed
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    genomics, model organism, phenomics, systems biology

Authors  Top 
  • Blomme, J., more
  • Wichard, T.
  • Jacobs, T.B., more
  • De Clerck, O., more

Abstract
    Green seaweeds exhibit a wide range of morphologies and occupy various ecological niches, spanning from freshwater to marine and terrestrial habitats. These organisms, which predominantly belong to the class Ulvophyceae, showcase a remarkable instance of parallel evolution toward complex multicellularity and macroscopic thalli in the Viridiplantae lineage. Within the green seaweeds, several Ulva species (“sea lettuce”) are model organisms for studying carbon assimilation, interactions with bacteria, life cycle progression, and morphogenesis. Ulva species are also notorious for their fast growth and capacity to dominate nutrient-rich, anthropogenically disturbed coastal ecosystems during “green tide” blooms. From an economic perspective, Ulva has garnered increasing attention as a promising feedstock for the production of food, feed, and biobased products, also as a means of removing excess nutrients from the environment. We propose that Ulva is poised to further develop as a model in green seaweed research. In this perspective, we focus explicitly on Ulva mutabilis/compressa as a model species and highlight the molecular data and tools that are currently available or in development. We discuss several areas that will benefit from future research or where exciting new developments have been reported in other Ulva species.

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