Ectocarpus is a genus of filamentous, marine brown algae. Brown algae belong to the stramenopiles, a large supergroup of organisms that are only distantly related to animals, land plants and fungi. Brown algae are also one of only a small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity. For many years, little information was available concerning the molecular mechanisms underlying multicellular development in the brown algae, but this situation has changed with the emergence of Ectocarpus as a model brown alga. Here we summarise some of the main questions that are being addressed and areas of study using Ectocarpus as a model organism and discuss how the genomic information, genetic tools and molecular approaches available for this organism are being employed to explore developmental questions in an evolutionary context.

中文翻译：

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Ectocarpus：褐藻的进化模型。

Ectocarpus 是一种丝状海洋褐藻属。褐藻属于原生藻菌，这是一个与动物、陆生植物和真菌只有远亲关系的大型生物超群。褐藻也是少数进化出复杂多细胞性的真核谱系之一。多年来，关于褐藻多细胞发育的分子机制的信息很少，但随着 Ectocarpus 作为模型褐藻的出现，这种情况发生了变化。在这里，我们总结了正在解决的一些主要问题和使用 Ectocarpus 作为模型生物的研究领域，并讨论如何利用可用于该生物的基因组信息、遗传工具和分子方法来探索进化背景下的发育问题。