C R Biol. 2022 Dec 8;345(2):15-38. doi: 10.5802/crbiol.80.
Microalgae are prominent aquatic organisms, responsible for about half of the photosynthetic activity on Earth. Over the past two decades, breakthroughs in genomics and ecosystem biology, as well as the development of genetic resources in model species, have redrawn the boundaries of our knowledge on the relevance of these microbes in global ecosystems. However, considering their vast biodiversity and complex evolutionary history, our comprehension of algal biology remains limited. As algae rely on light, both as their main source of energy and for information about their environment, we focus here on photosynthesis, photoperception, and chloroplast biogenesis in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and marine diatoms. We describe how the studies of light-driven processes are key to assessing functional biodiversity in evolutionary distant microalgae. We also emphasize that integration of laboratory and environmental studies, and dialogues between different scientific communities are both timely and essential to understand the life of phototrophs in complex ecosystems and to properly assess the consequences of environmental changes on aquatic environments globally.
微藻是一种重要的水生生物，它们的光合作用活动约占地球光合作用活动的一半。在过去的二十年中，基因组学和生态系统生物学的突破，以及模式物种遗传资源的发展，重新定义了我们对这些微生物在全球生态系统中相关性的认识。然而，考虑到它们丰富的生物多样性和复杂的进化历史，我们对藻类生物学的理解仍然有限。由于藻类依赖于光，既是它们的主要能量来源，也是它们环境信息的来源，因此我们在这里重点关注绿藻莱茵衣藻和海洋硅藻中的光合作用、光感知和叶绿体生物发生。我们描述了光驱动过程的研究如何成为评估进化上遥远的微藻功能多样性的关键。我们还强调，实验室和环境研究的整合，以及不同科学领域之间的对话，对于理解复杂生态系统中光养生物的生活以及正确评估全球水生环境变化的后果都是及时且必要的。
