Abstract
The origin of land plants and their descendants was marked by the evolution of key adaptations to life on terrestrial environments such as roots, vascular tissue, and stomata. Though these innovations are well characterised, the evolution of the genetic toolkit underlying their development and function is poorly understood.
We analysed molecular data from 532 species to investigate the evolutionary origin and diversification of genes involved in the development and regulation of these adaptations.
We show that novel genes in the first land plants led to the single origin of stomata, but the stomatal closure of seed plants resulted from later gene expansions. In contrast, the major mechanism leading to the origin of vascular tissue was co-option of genes that emerged in the first land plants, enabling continuous water transport throughout the ancestral vascular plant. In turn, new key genes in the ancestors of plants with true leaves and seed plants led to the emergence of roots and lateral roots.
The analysis highlights the different modes of evolution that enabled plants to conquer land, suggesting that gene expansion and co-option are the more common mechanisms of biological innovation in plant evolutionary history.
We analysed molecular data from 532 species to investigate the evolutionary origin and diversification of genes involved in the development and regulation of these adaptations.
We show that novel genes in the first land plants led to the single origin of stomata, but the stomatal closure of seed plants resulted from later gene expansions. In contrast, the major mechanism leading to the origin of vascular tissue was co-option of genes that emerged in the first land plants, enabling continuous water transport throughout the ancestral vascular plant. In turn, new key genes in the ancestors of plants with true leaves and seed plants led to the emergence of roots and lateral roots.
The analysis highlights the different modes of evolution that enabled plants to conquer land, suggesting that gene expansion and co-option are the more common mechanisms of biological innovation in plant evolutionary history.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 732-742 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | New Phytologist |
| Volume | 235 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 20 Jan 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 20 Jan 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Prof. Phillip Mullineaux and Prof. Alistair Hetherington for their comments on the manuscript. We also thank Stuart Newman for his support of the Genomics HPC server. AMCB, JP and UB received funding from the School of Life Sciences (University of Essex). UB also received support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grant no. BB/R019819/1. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2022 New Phytologist Foundation
Keywords
- plant evolution
- stomata
- vascular tissue
- roots
- comparative genomics