A Series of Fortunate Events: Introducing Chlamydomonas as a Reference Organism

The unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a classical reference organism for photosynthesis, chloroplast biology, cell cycle control, and cilia structure and function. It is also an emerging model for sensory cilia, production of high-value bioproducts and in situ structure determination. Much of the early appeal of Chlamydomonas was rooted in its promise as a genetic system, but like other classic model systems this rise to prominence predated the discovery of the structure of DNA, whole genome sequences, and molecular techniques to manipulate genes. Its haploid genome facilitates genetic analyses, and offers many of the advantages of a microbial system to study photosynthetic organisms. C. reinhardtii has contributed to our understanding of chloroplast-based photosynthesis and cilia biology. Despite pervasive transgene silencing, technological advances have allowed researchers to address outstanding lines of inquiry in algal research. The most thoroughly-studied unicellular alga, C. reinhardtii is the current standard for algal research, and although it lacks routine genome editing, it nevertheless delivers the template for other algae. Here, we present a historical retrospective of C. reinhardtii's rise to shine a light on its past and present, and present resources for current and future scientists who may wish to expand to the realm of microalgae.