TheREDToLNSF

This site highlights outreach activities of RedToL, the National Science Foundation-funded Tree of Life Initiative to reconstruct the Red Algal (Rhodophyta) Tree of Life using phylogenetic and genomic approaches.
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5129

Red algae (Rhodophyta) are important aquatic primary producers that are one of the most anciently diverged eukaryotic phyla. The red algal plastid is widespread in the Tree of Life (ToL) among chromalveolates. In spite of its obvious importance, the Rhodophyta is under-studied. To fill this gap in eukaryote phylogeny, a research team of eight red algal taxonomy and genomics experts was assembled to address fundamental questions of red algal evolution and their place in the ToL. To accomplish the aims of RedToL, we will: 1) reconstruct a robust phylogeny of 471 red algal species using a concatenated dataset of 2 nuclear, 4 plastid, and 2 mitochondrial encoded gene markers, 2) sequence plastid genomes and generate transcriptome or genome databases for 16 key taxa that represent the phylogenetic (e.g., class- and order-level) breadth of red algae, and 3) make freely available red algal multi-gene and genome data via release to GenBank and a web site listed above.

The Research Team includes:
1) Hwan Su Yoon (Lead PI), Bigelow Lab for Ocean Sciences http://www.bigelow.org/research/srs/hwan_su_yoon/
2) Debashish Bhattacharya (Co−PI), Rutgers University http://dblab.rutgers.edu/home/index.php
3) Sung Min Boo (Co−PI), Chungnam National University http://www.megrc.re.kr/v2/eng/html/p_09.html
4) Suzanne Fredericq (Co-PI), Univ. Louisiana at Lafayette http://suzannefredericqseaweedslab.com
5) Max Hommersand (Co−PI) , UNC-Chapel Hill http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/Collectors/Hommersand_Max.htm
6) Juan Lopez−Bautista (Co−PI), University of Alabama http://bama.ua.edu/~jlopez/
7) Gary Saunders (Co−PI), University of New Brunswick http://www.unb.ca/cemar/saunders/
8) Morgan L. Vis (Co−PI), Ohio University http://www.ohio.edu/plantbio/vislab/laboratory/vis.html