Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis. A Dynamic Duo

A translational biology perspective on Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis might be expected to focus on those genes, cellular components, or biological processes found first in Chlamydomonas and subsequently studied in Arabidopsis. There are indeed many such examples. There are also examples that flow from Arabidopsis to Chlamydomonas in terms of initial discovery and subsequent study. However, the differences can also be illuminating. In this brief essay, we make a case for the pairing of Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis as model organisms that bracket a major subset of photosynthetic eukaryotes, the green plants (Mishler, 2000). By analogy with the yeast-mouse dyad, this green pair has tremendous potential as we enter an era of renewed interest in comparative biology.