Abstract
The algae are not a natural assemblage of organisms. Rather they are a diverse group of protists and fungi which have acquired chloroplasts in various ways, in some groups directly from symbiotic photosynthetic prokaryotes and in others from symbiotic eukaryotic algae. The new techniques for rapidly sequencing ribosomal RNA, discussed by Adoutte in this volume, are producing evolutionary trees which are giving us a clearer understanding of the true relationships between different eukaryotes. In Fig. 1, I have drawn an evolutionary tree based on the sequences of the small subunit ribosomal RNA of a number of eukaryotes. The most ancient eukaryotes whose ribosomal RNA has been sequenced to date are Giardia lamblia, a parasitic diplomonad, and Vairimorpha necatrix, a microsporidian. Neither of these protists has mitochondria, and it is possible that these ancient eukaryotes evolved prior to the acquisition of mitochondria. Also ancient are the trypanosomes and Euglena. Somewhat later Dictyostelium evolved, but then came an explosive radiation of many protist groups, fungi, plants and animals. In this tree, I have put in boldface lettering those groups which contain species with chloroplasts. A glance at the tree shows that the algae are polyphyletic. Euglenoids evolved very early and are related to trypanosomes. The dinoflagellates, which many have assumed to be an ancient group because of the presence of a mesokaryotic nucleus (Loeblich, 1976), in fact evolved late and are related to ciliates. The brown algae and Chrysophytes are related to each other and to the Oomycetes, a relationship long suspected due to the presence of heterokont flagella in each group. Higher plants and green algae form a natural assemblage. The fact that organisms with chloroplasts appear on different branches of the tree indicates that different groups have acquired chloroplasts independently of each other. In this symposium presentation, I will summarize our present understanding of how chloroplasts evolved in the different groups of algae.
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Gibbs, S.P. (1990). The evolution of algal chloroplasts. In: Wiessner, W., Robinson, D.G., Starr, R.C. (eds) Cell Walls and Surfaces, Reproduction, Photosynthesis. Experimental Phycology, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-48652-4_11
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