A high-resolution transcriptome map of Ectocarpus siliculosus

Brown algae (Phaeophyceae) are complex photosynthetic organisms with a very different evolutionary history to green plants, to which they are only distantly related. These seaweeds are the dominant species in rocky coastal ecosystems and they exhibit many interesting adaptations to these, often harsh, environments. The brown algae are also important because they are one of only a very small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity. This work used whole genome tiling array approach to generate a comprehensive transcriptome map of the filamentous seaweed Ectocarpus siliculosus (Dillwyn) Lyngbye, a model organism for the brown algae. Keywords: high-resolution tiling array, brown algae, ectocarpus The slides were hybridised with two, labelled samples: 1) a mixture of labelled cDNA corresponding to RNA samples from mature sporophytes and gametophytes and from immature sporophytes stressed either in high salt medium or by addition of hydrogen peroxide and 2) genomic DNA as a control.