Image of the Day: Seaweed Sequence

ABOVE: The paving-stone arrangement of seaweed cells (Ulva mutabilis)
JOHN H. BOTHWELL

Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of a type of green seaweed, called Ulva mutabilis, for the first time, according to a study published September 13 in Current Biology. Ulva’s genome will help researchers study coastal biogeochemical cycles to which sulfur-producing green seaweed is a major contributor, as well as marine ecosystems penetrated by rapid algal growth and the evolution of multicellularity in green plants. 

O. De Clerck et al., “Insights into the evolution of multicellularity from the sea lettuce genome,” Curr Biol, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.015, 2018.