User talk:Marioux/sandbox
Introduction Edits
Red algae, or Rhodophyta (/roʊˈdɒfᵻtə/ roh-dof-fit-tə or /ˌroʊdəˈfaɪtə/ roh-də-fy-tə; from Ancient Greek: ῥόδον rhodon, "rose" and φυτόν phyton, "plant"), are one of the oldest and largest phyla of eukaryotic algae.[2] Currently, scientists recognize over 7,000 species in the red algae division; however, taxonomic revisions are ongoing. [3] The majority of those species, approximately 6,793, are found in the Florideophyceae (class), and consist of mostly multicellular, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds.[3][4] Predominantly, most red algae species are marine, but approximately 5% of the red algae occur in freshwater environments.[5][47] <-- insert citation to list
The red algae form a distinct group characterized by their lack of flagella and centrioles, lack of external endoplasmic reticulum and unstacked (stoma) thylakoids in chloroplasts, and their use of chloorphyll a, phycobilins, and carotenoids to produce their distinguishing red color. [6] [47] Red algae store sugars as floridean starch, which is a type of starch that consists of highly branched amylopectin without amylose,[7] as food reserves outside their plastids. The red algal life history is typically an alternation of generations that may have three generations rather than two.[8]
Red algae, green algae, and Glaucophytes evolved from an endosymbiotic event between an ancestral, photosynthetic cyanobacterium and an early eukarytoic Phagotroph.[9] The event (termed Primary endosymbiosis) caused the oldest evolutionary lineages of photosynthetic eukaryotes.[10] A secondary endosymbiosis event involving an ancestral red alga and a heterotrophic eukaryote resulted in the evolution and diversification of several other photosynthetic lineages.[which?][10]