What did the algae that gave rise to the first land plants look like? A research team led by the University of Göttingen and including the universities of Maastricht, Innsbruck and Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales has now taken a detailed look at one of the most important groups for answering these questions: the Zygnematophyceae, the closest living algal relatives of land plants. These include familiar-looking filamentous algae such as Spirogyra, as well as many that just consist of single cells. Despite their relatively simple appearance, they are particularly important for understanding plant evolution due to their close relationship with land plants. Researchers analysed a dataset covering more than 100 species and 2,000 genes to shed light on the evolution of multicellularity. Their results were published in PLOS Biology.