The power of eukaryote genomics relies strongly on taxon sampling. This point was underlined in a recent analysis of red algal genome evolution in which we tested the Plantae hypothesis that posits the monophyly of red, green (including plants) and glaucophyte algae. The inclusion of novel genome data from two mesophilic red algae enabled us to robustly demonstrate the sisterhood of red and gre...

Lectins are univalent or polyvalent carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immune origin that widely distributed in the marine ecosystem. A lectin was isolated from algae Gracilaria verrucosa by G-100 gel filtration chromatography. This named GVL, agglutinated rat, rabbit, goat, chicken and human ABO erythrocytes. The antibacterial activity this algal studied using disc diffusion method. GVL exhi...

The appearance of photosynthetic eukaryotes (algae and plants) dramatically altered the Earth's ecosystem, making possible all vertebrate life on land, including humans. Dating algal origin is, however, frustrated by a meager fossil record. We generated a plastid multi-gene phylogeny with Bayesian inference and then used maximum likelihood molecular clock methods to estimate algal divergence ti...

Reconstructing pH from biogenic carbonates using boron isotopic compositions relies on the assumption that only borate, and no boric acid, is present. Red coralline algae are frequently used in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction due to their widespread distribution and regular banding frequency. Prior to undertaking pH reconstructions using red coralline algae we tested the boron composition of...

Marine red algae (Rhodophyta) are a rich source of bioactive halogenated natural products. The biogenesis of the cyclic halogenated terpene marine natural products, in particular, has attracted sustained interest in part because terpenes are the biogenic precursors of many bioactive metabolites. The first enzymatic asymmetric bromination and cyclization of a terpene, producing marine natural pr...

Falkowski et al. (1) reviewed the evidence that three disparate groups of algae— dinoflagellates, diatoms, and coccolitho-phores, each with plastids derived from red algae by secondary endosymbiosis—have come to dominate the oceans_ flora over the past 250 million years and speculated about the forces responsible for this domination. Central to this speculation is the Bportable plastid hypothes...

Membrane transporters (MTs) facilitate the movement of molecules between cellular compartments. The evolutionary history of these key components of eukaryote genomes remains unclear. Many photosynthetic microbial eukaryotes (e.g., diatoms, haptophytes, and dinoflagellates) appear to have undergone serial endosymbiosis and thereby recruited foreign genes through endosymbiotic/horizontal gene tra...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The red algae are an evolutionarily ancient group of predominantly marine organisms with an estimated 6000 species. Consensus higher-level molecular phylogenies support a basal split between the unicellular Cyanidiophytina and morphologically diverse Rhodophytina, the later subphylum containing most red algal species. The Rhodophytina is divided into six classes, of which fi...