Understanding the algae to land plant transition

Abstract

The first land plants arose similar to 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 first 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'.