Unravelling the Algae

Acting as titans in global control of the biosphere and colonizing virtually all corners of the earth, algae, extremely diverse and numerous oxygenic, photosynthetic organisms, can be major players in and drivers of environmental change. For hundreds of years, since their evolutionary origins by endosymbiosis, when a protozoan enslaved a cyanobacterium, fascinated scientists strove to uncover the mysteries of their diversity, interactions, taxonomy, and classification. Today, new molecular tools and technologies like chromatography and genetic fingerprinting reveal the innermost secrets of algal ancestry and phylogeny and open new possibilities to answering age-old questions."Unravelling the Algae: The Past, Present, and Future of Algae Systematics" brings together the most respected minds in the field to review the state-of-the-science and assess the impact of molecular tools on the taxonomy of algal groups.