CharMod: Selection and establishment of charophyte algae model organisms

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG)

project term: 01.02.2019 – 31.01.2022

applicants: Hendrik Schubert, Stefan Rensing (Uni Marburg), Klaus von Schwartzenberg (Uni Hamburg)

project employee: Anja Holzhausen

The DFG-funded project CharMod aims to establish model organisms as platforms allowing the analysis of molecular (genomic), structural and physiological properties of charophyte algae under controlled laboratory conditions with respect to evolutionary questions. We focus on the classes of Charophyceae and Zygnematophyceae, as they, together with the land plants, form the monophyletic group of Phragmoplastophyta united by the presence of a phragmoplast.

This project includes testing and establishing all requirements for model organisms to result in protocols for: cultivation, completion of life cycle in vitro, axenic cultures, transformation, genome and transcriptome sequencing.