User:Msiscar/Ectocarpus siliculosus/Annakhl Peer Review

General info

Whose work are you reviewing?

Enfried15 and Msiscar

Link to draft you're reviewing

User:Msiscar/Ectocarpus siliculosus

Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)

Ectocarpus siliculosus

Evaluate the drafted changes

Overall impressions

You've done a lot of great work to improve your stub article! As of where it stands, it's much more informational. However, I think that you should include the sources from the stub article in your bibliography since it appears as though you haven't. Also, breaking up the information into different sections and including some images (if not a phylogenetic tree as well) would very much benefit the article. Below are details on what I think could use improvement :)

Lead

• Has the Lead been updated to reflect the new content added by your peer? The Lead is much more informational and goes much farther in depth than the original Lead does. However, you may benefit from adding more hyperlinks to some of the supplementary material (i.e. stramenopiles, opisthokonts, uniseriate, siderophores, etc.) since readers may question what these things are.

Content

• Is the content added relevant to the topic? Absolutely! You give solid background to the species and go further into details that the original article is lacking.
• however, make sure to back up the information you've added with citations: it seems like there are multiple sentences that should be cited as well.
• Is the content added up-to-date? Relatively, but I think that these were stub articles for a reason, so having information that is a few years behind the current year is probably alright.
• Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? I don't think so; just make sure to consider this question yourselves before you finalize the page.

Tone and Balance

• Is the content added neutral? I think so, yes.
• Does the content added attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? I don't think so, no. (I don't know how you could do that, though, when talking about a species in a neutral tone)

Sources and References

• Is all new content backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? A lot of it is, but some of it seems to need citations. Also, your bibliography seems to have a different setup/organization than typical Wiki pages; try to sort that out. Here are some example where I think citations could/should be added:
  • "Ectocarpus siliculosus is a filamentous brown alga.(citation) Seaweeds of the genus Ectocarpus are found worldwide along temperate coastlines, where they grow on rocky substrates or epiphytically on other algae and seagrass.(citation)"
  • "The brown algae are members of the stramenopiles (along with organisms such as diatoms and oomycetes).(citation) The stramenopiles diverged from other major eukaryotic groups such as the opisthokonts (animals and fungi) and the archaeplastida (which includes land plants) over a billion years ago.(citation)"
  • "E. siliculosus is a tufted plant, often only one to a few cm tall, but in exceptional cases up to 20 cm.(citation) It has axes that are freely branched, and the main axis is not distinguishable. Filaments on E. siliculosus can grow up to 30μm in diameter, tapering toward the apices and sometimes forming terminal pseudo hairs.(citation)"
  • "E. siliculosus reproduction and growth involves two different patterns of early development, which begin with either a symmetric or an asymmetric division of the initial cell.(citation) Symmetric division leads to the development of a prostate, basal structure before the erect thallus is formed.(citation)"
  • "E. siliculosus alternates between two generational life cycles that differ in either being sporophytes ( produce few laterals and develop from a branched prostate base) or gametophytes ( richly branched and devoid of a prostate base).(citation) E. siliculosus gametophytes have an asymmetric initial cell division and immediate differentiation of an erect thallus.(citation)"
  • "E. siliculosus develops uniseriate filaments.(citation)"
  • "The prostrate body is in turn composed of crawling filaments ( crawling filaments are made of Elongated (E) cells and Round (R) cells)  which is a filament with E cells on the edges and R cells in the center.(citation)"
  • "E. siliculosus is able to accumulate high concentrations of iodide from seawater.(citation) The carbon storage system of brown algae is unusual, involving the accumulation of reserves of mannitol and the β-1,3-glucan laminarin rather than α-1,4-glucans such as starch or glycogen.(citation)"
  • "This species of Ectocarpus has been shown to bind iron on its cells with non-specificity.(citation) This iron ion shell allows the algae to store and have a constant source of iron regardless of the conditions of the surrounding environment.(citation) This adaptation is important because this method of iron uptake is similar to that of terrestrial organisms and differs from the methods typically used in the marine environment such as siderophores.(citation)"
  • "Ectocarpus is a species known for its evolution of sex-based gene expression.(citation) It has also been found to have a low level of phenotypic sexual dimorphism.(citation)  Having a low level of sexual dimorphism means that two sexes of a species do not have different characteristics.(citation)   This has been backed up by the findings that Ectocarpus has female genes that evolve as rapidly as their male genes.(citation)"
  • "Ectocarpus has been used by researchers to study the evolution of complex multicellularity in brown algae.(citation)  With the study of Ectocarpus came the discovery of multiple genetic and genomic resources that apply to all species of brown algae.(citation)  Before, the lack of both the proper tools to study genome data and genome data itself halted the progress of understanding brown algal developmental processes at the molecular level.(citation)"

Organization

• Is the content added well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? It is easy to read, but the addition of hyperlinks, headings, subheadings, and images would heighten its readability.
• Does the content added have any grammatical or spelling errors? I could be wrong, but it seems as though there are 2 spaces in between sentences; this is unnecessary -- just hit the space bar once after punctuation (and everywhere else). Also, a period is needed after "Asymmetric division leads to the immediate development of an erect thallus without the formation of a prostate, basal structure (immediate differentiation)" before its citation.
• Is the content added well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? Your article would benefit from being broken up into sections. Here are some examples of headings I think you could/should add and where:
  • "Anatomy and physiology" heading before your paragraph that begins with "The alga is unbranched and filamentous..."
  • "Growth and reproduction" heading before your paragraph that begins with "E. siliculosus reproduction and growth involves two different patterns of early development..."
    • "Development" subheading before your paragraph that begins with "E. siliculosus develops uniseriate filaments..."
  • "Ion storage and binding" heading before your paragraph that begins with "E. siliculosus is able to accumulate high concentrations of iodide from seawater..."
  • "Sexual characteristics" heading before your paragraph that begins with "Ectocarpus is a species known for its evolution of sex-based gene expression..."

• I also suggest moving the paragraph that starts with "Brown algae have many unique characteristics in terms of their metabolism and cell biology..." to be the second-to-last paragraph in the article. It's more closely related to the last paragraph than it is to the ones it is currently surrounded by. Once you do this, you can add a heading:
  • "Research" heading before "Brown algae have many unique characteristics in terms of their metabolism and cell biology..." that also encompasses "Ectocarpus has been used by researchers to study the evolution of complex multicellularity in brown algae..."

Images and Media

• Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? No, and I think you should add some! They break up the information and add some much-needed color and information to the page. Try finding images of the full-grown species, its larval stages, possibly its biological structure, etc. You can do this by adding a gallery template and searching for images with free access under Wiki Commons.