This task depends on our understanding of the origin of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and their evolution via series of endosymbioses and gene transfers. In particular, the evolution of eukaryotic algae is far from being established. Organisms simplistically called “algae” encompass clades in extremely distant branches in the Tree of Life. The very first challenge is to provide clarity, whenever possible, on the evolution and taxonomy of photosynthetic organisms and their close nonphotosynthetic relatives. Taxonomic views have been revised regularly and are still debated, now based on molecular, chemical, and ultrastructural traits ( Adl et al., 2019). For centuries, species have been described with great morphological precision. The biodiversity found in the depth of lakes, rivers, oceans, and even ice and snow has always been a source of wonder and curiosity. Without pretending to be exhaustive and with few selected references, six grand challenges, requiring multidisciplinary approaches, are introduced below.Įvolution, Taxonomy and Biodiversity of Photosynthetic Organisms in Aquatic Ecosystems
In this multiscale view, functional genomics and ecophysiology occupy a pivotal position linking molecular and cellular analyses and ecosystem-level studies. Needed efforts embrace a broad spectrum of disciplines, from environmental and evolutionary sciences, to molecular and cell biology. By contrast, the fragmentary knowledge on the biology of algae, the hope to find in this biodiversity inspiration for biotechnologies, and the emergency created by the environmental crisis affecting oceans, lakes, rivers, or melting glaciers, have stressed the importance to make up for lost time. The efforts put on land plants were motivated by agriculture and forestry, applications for human industry, easy access to terrestrial ecosystems, and convenient cultivation methods in fields or growth chambers. The past decades have seen an increasing interest on the biology of photosynthetic species living in aquatic environments, including diverse organisms collectively called “algae.” If we consider the relative size of scientific communities, marine and freshwater plants have been overall less studied than terrestrial ones. Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire et Végétale, UMR 5168 CNRS, CEA, INRAE, Université Grenoble Alpes, IRIG, CEA Grenoble, Grenoble, France.
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