Understanding the algae to land plant transition

Abstract

The frst land plants arose ∼470 million years ago and the 'algae to land plant transition', or so-called terrestrialization, was truly earth changing. While it is established that streptopyhte green algae (Charophyta) gave rise to all embryophytes, many interesting questions remain unanswered; for example, what were the physiological adaptations to the new habitat and how complex were the frst land plants morphologically? This special issue is a collection of 12 review and research papers dealing with various adaptations that enabled the 'algae to land plant transition'.