Ancient algal defenses against UV may have helped plants conquer land
A new study sheds light on how the ancestors of modern land plants survived one of the most challenging aspects of life outside water: exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. By examining a microscopic alga closely related to the earliest land plants, researchers have uncovered a sophisticated and dynamic system for coping with sunburn-one that likely helped plants colonize land more than 500 million years ago. The results are published in Current Biology.
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