How did higher life evolve? Scientists determine the complete genome sequence of brown alga
Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 16:30
in Biology & Nature
With the world's first complete sequencing of a brown algal genome, an international research team has made a big leap towards understanding the evolution of two key prerequisites for higher life on Earth - multicellularity and photosynthesis. As the internationally renowned science magazine Nature reported in its latest issue, about 100 scientists and technicians, during a five-year research project, successfully decoded all hereditary information - commonly known as the "genome" - of Ectocarpus siliculosus, an up to 20 cm large brown seaweed, which occurs mainly along coastlines in temperate latitudes. They have analyzed approximately 214 million base pairs and assigned these to about 16,000 genes.