Test 2 Review Questions -- Algal Progenitors of the Land Plants

Question 1

What morphological feature led to the identification of the green algal group most likely to be the modern descendants of the last common ancestor of algae and land plants?

Answer 1

Phragmoplast

Question 2

What technology has led to our increasingly detailed understanding of relationships between various Charophycean algae and the land plants, and has provided insights into some of the events that likely took place enabling the rise of land plants?

Answer 2

Phylogenomics – using “complete” genomes to build phylogenetic trees; identifying through sequence similarity genes that appear to be descended from bacterial genes via lateral gene transfer

Question 3

What kind of life cycle do the extand algal relatives of land plants exhibit?

Answer 3

Haplobiontic–haploid

Question 4

What features in addition to the phragmoplast do the Charophycean algae share with the land plants?

Answer 4

• Cellulose (containing cell walls)
• “Rosette” (cellulose-synthesizing complexes)
• Sporopollenin
• Sterile support structures around egg