THE MODEL SYSTEM ECTOCARPUS: INTEGRATING FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS INTO BROWN ALGAL RESEARCH

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Cock, J. Mark

Edité par CCSD ; Wiley -

International audience. Model organisms have played a key role in establishing the extensive knowledge we now have of the molecular bases of biological processes across the tree of life. Ectocarpus was proposed as a genetic and genomic model for the brown algae nearly two decades ago. Since that time multiple tools and resources have been developed for this organism, including a high-quality reference genome assembly and both forward and CRISPR-Cas9-based reverse genetics methodologies. This commentary provides an overview of the resources currently available for Ectocarpus and discusses the potential of this organism to address a broad range of questions in brown algal biology. In particular, I highlight the interest of this model system in contexts where a model-based approach may seem less relevant, such as for projects that investigate ecological, biogeographical or population-related questions. These projects are usually focused on other brown algal species but integration of a model-based approach using Ectocarpus could be highly complementary and potentially provide exciting new insights into the genetic processes underlying population- and organism-level phenomena.

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