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Published on: June 13, 2018
The evolutionary origins of streptophyte multicellularity
Tatyana Darienko1,2, Cäcilia F Kunz1, Elisa S Goldbecker1
1Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, University of Göttingen, Julia-Lermontowa-Weg 3, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
The New Phytologist
|July 10, 2026
Summary
Streptophyte evolution is dynamic, not linear. Regulatory changes in cell behavior, not just gene changes, drive the diverse multicellular forms seen across their evolutionary history.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Plant science
- Cell biology
Background:
- Streptophytes exhibit a dynamic evolutionary history, repeatedly transitioning between unicellular and multicellular forms over 1 billion years.
- Multicellularity in streptophytes is not a linear progression towards land plants, but involves losses and secondary gains of complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explain the dynamic evolution of multicellularity in streptophytes.
- To investigate the role of regulatory cellular changes and protein-protein interactions in shaping streptophyte body plan diversity.
- To understand how conserved molecular toolkits generated diversity and facilitated land plant emergence.
Main Methods:
- Phylogenomic analyses
- Ancestral state reconstruction
- Comparative genomics
- Functional cell biology
Main Results:
- Multicellularity originated early in streptophyte evolution, followed by lineage-specific losses and gains.
- Charophyceae and Coleochaetophyceae body plans are derived, not direct precursors to land plants.
- Zygnematophyte algae show reductions in complexity despite retaining multicellularity-associated genes.
- Cellular regulatory changes (division patterns, polarity, cell walls, connectivity) are key to body plan diversity.
- Rewiring of protein-protein interaction networks drives evolutionary innovation.
Conclusions:
- Streptophyte multicellular evolution is driven by cellular regulatory changes and protein-protein network rewiring, not solely gene gain/loss.
- Conserved molecular toolkits, through regulatory modifications, generated diverse streptophyte forms and enabled land plant origins.
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