Flowering plant evolution: advances, challenges and prospects

2016 ◽  
pp. 336-381
Author(s):  
David Briggs ◽  
Stuart Max Walters
Keyword(s):  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant

scholarly journals Trends in flower symmetry evolution revealed through phylogenetic and developmental genetic advances

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1648) ◽  
pp. 20130348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena C. Hileman
Keyword(s):  
Bilateral Symmetry ◽  
Radial Symmetry ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Developmental Genetic ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Flower Symmetry ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Developmental Programme

A striking aspect of flowering plant (angiosperm) diversity is variation in flower symmetry. From an ancestral form of radial symmetry (polysymmetry, actinomorphy), multiple evolutionary transitions have contributed to instances of non-radial forms, including bilateral symmetry (monosymmetry, zygomorphy) and asymmetry. Advances in flowering plant molecular phylogenetic research and studies of character evolution as well as detailed flower developmental genetic studies in a few model species (e.g. Antirrhinum majus , snapdragon) have provided a foundation for deep insights into flower symmetry evolution. From phylogenetic studies, we have a better understanding of where during flowering plant diversification transitions from radial to bilateral flower symmetry (and back to radial symmetry) have occurred. From developmental studies, we know that a genetic programme largely dependent on the functional action of the CYCLOIDEA gene is necessary for differentiation along the snapdragon dorsoventral flower axis. Bringing these two lines of inquiry together has provided surprising insights into both the parallel recruitment of a CYC -dependent developmental programme during independent transitions to bilateral flower symmetry, and the modifications to this programme in transitions back to radial flower symmetry, during flowering plant evolution.

scholarly journals Characterization of the single FERONIA homolog in Marchantia polymorpha reveals an ancestral role of CrRLK1L receptor kinases in regulating cell expansion and morphological integrity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Mecchia ◽  
Moritz Rövekamp ◽  
Alejandro Giraldo-Fonseca ◽  
Dario Meier ◽  
Philippe Gadient ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Wall ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Cell Expansion ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Marchantia Polymorpha ◽  
Genetic Redundancy ◽  
Ancestral Gene ◽  
Ancestral Function

SummaryPlant cells are surrounded by a cell wall, a rigid structure rich in polysaccharides and glycoproteins. The cell wall is not only important for cell and organ shape, but crucial for intercellular communication, plant-microbe interactions, and as a barrier to the environment. In the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the 17 members of the Catharanthus roseus RLK1-like (CrRLK1L) receptor kinase subfamily are involved in a multitude of physiological and developmental processes involving the cell wall, including reproduction, hormone signaling, cell expansion, innate immunity, and various stress responses. Due to genetic redundancy and the fact that individual CrRLK1Ls can have distinct and sometimes opposing functions, it is difficult to assess the primary or ancestral function of CrRLK1Ls. To reduce genetic complexity, we characterized the single CrRLK1L gene of Marchantia polymorpha, MpFERONIA (MpFER). Plants with reduced MpFER levels show defects in vegetative development, i.e., rhizoid formation and cell expansion, but also affect male fertility. In contrast, Mpfer null mutants and overexpression lines severely affect cell integrity and morphogenesis of the gametophyte. Thus, the CrRLK1L gene family originated from a single gene with an ancestral function in cell expansion and the maintenance of cellular integrity. During land plant evolution, this ancestral gene diversified and was recruited to fulfil a multitude of specialized physiological and developmental and roles in the formation of both gametophytic and sporophytic structures essential to the life cycle of flowering plants.

scholarly journals Case not closed: the mystery of the origin of the carpel

EvoDevo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Evolutionary Transition ◽  
Remarkable Feature ◽  
Stem Lineage ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
Closed Structure

AbstractThe carpel is a fascinating structure that plays a critical role in flowering plant reproduction and contributed greatly to the evolutionary success and diversification of flowering plants. The remarkable feature of the carpel is that it is a closed structure that envelopes the ovules and after fertilization develops into the fruit which protects, helps disperse, and supports seed development into a new plant. Nearly all plant-based foods are either derived from a flowering plant or are a direct product of the carpel. Given its importance it’s no surprise that plant and evolutionary biologists have been trying to explain the origin of the carpel for a long time. Before carpel evolution seeds were produced on open leaf-like structures that are exposed to the environment. When the carpel evolved in the stem lineage of flowering plants, seeds became protected within its closed structure. The evolutionary transition from that open precursor to the closed carpel remains one of the greatest mysteries of plant evolution. In recent years, we have begun to complete a picture of what the first carpels might have looked like. On the other hand, there are still many gaps in our understanding of what the precursor of the carpel looked like and what changes to its developmental mechanisms allowed for this evolutionary transition. This review aims to present an overview of existing theories of carpel evolution with a particular emphasis on those that account for the structures that preceded the carpel and/or present testable developmental hypotheses. In the second part insights from the development and evolution of diverse plant organs are gathered to build a developmental hypothesis for the evolutionary transition from a hypothesized laminar open structure to the closed structure of the carpel.

Land flora. Geography of the flowering plants

1969 ◽  
Vol 255 (800) ◽  
pp. 549-566 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Land Bridge ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neighbouring Island ◽  
The Tropics

The phanerogam flora of the Solomon Islands resembles that of Malesia, but has fewer families, genera and species. A number of lines of evidence indicate that it is not a recent, immigrant flora, and has not arrived by long-distance dispersal. The implication to be drawn from phanerogam distributions in Melanesia is that there have been stronger land connexions within the region and with Malesia in the past. The poverty of the Solomons flora is partly explicable by incomplete immigration from Malesia. There is also evidence for chance extinctions within the Group such as could follow from the continually changing land-sea boundaries. In its present form with a uniform flora with few local endemics, yet disjunctions to neighbouring island groups, the archipelago may well represent a ‘land-bridge’. Surprisingly there is no evidence of extensive species radiation in the Solomons despite gross geological viscissitudes; this is contrary to expectations based on temperate floras and suggests that flowering plant evolution in the tropics may be very slow. Further knowledge of the dates of land-sea changes in Melanesia should allow a time-scale to be set on the evolution of individual species.

scholarly journals Water lily (Nymphaea thermarum) genome reveals variable genomic signatures of ancient vascular cambium losses

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (15) ◽  
pp. 8649-8656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. Povilus ◽  
Jeffrey M. DaCosta ◽  
Christopher Grassa ◽  
Prasad R. V. Satyaki ◽  
Morgan Moeglein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Draft Genome ◽  
Gene Families ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Vascular Cambium ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Seed Plants ◽  
Water Lily ◽  
Angiosperm Evolution ◽  
Genomic Signatures ◽  
Independent Events

For more than 225 million y, all seed plants were woody trees, shrubs, or vines. Shortly after the origin of angiosperms ∼140 million y ago (MYA), the Nymphaeales (water lilies) became one of the first lineages to deviate from their ancestral, woody habit by losing the vascular cambium, the meristematic population of cells that produces secondary xylem (wood) and phloem. Many of the genes and gene families that regulate differentiation of secondary tissues also regulate the differentiation of primary xylem and phloem, which are produced by apical meristems and retained in nearly all seed plants. Here, we sequenced and assembled a draft genome of the water lily Nymphaea thermarum, an emerging system for the study of early flowering plant evolution, and compared it to genomes from other cambium-bearing and cambium-less lineages (e.g., monocots and Nelumbo). This revealed lineage-specific patterns of gene loss and divergence. Nymphaea is characterized by a significant contraction of the HD-ZIP III transcription factors, specifically loss of REVOLUTA, which influences cambial activity in other angiosperms. We also found the Nymphaea and monocot copies of cambium-associated CLE signaling peptides display unique substitutions at otherwise highly conserved amino acids. Nelumbo displays no obvious divergence in cambium-associated genes. The divergent genomic signatures of convergent loss of vascular cambium reveals that even pleiotropic genes can exhibit unique divergence patterns in association with independent events of trait loss. Our results shed light on the evolution of herbaceousness—one of the key biological innovations associated with the earliest phases of angiosperm evolution.

scholarly journals RNA-mediated transfer of the gene coxII from the mitochondrion to the nucleus during flowering plant evolution

Cell ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Nugent ◽  
Jeffrey D. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant

scholarly journals Biostimulants: Potential and Prospects in Agriculture

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Ingudam Bhupenchandra ◽  
Soibam Helena Devi ◽  
Anjali Basumatary ◽  
Samiron Dutta ◽  
Laishram Kanta Singh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Protection ◽  
Inorganic Compounds ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Nutrient Mobilization ◽  
Plant Growth Hormones ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Abiotic Stressors ◽  
Fruit Formation ◽  
By Products

In the last thirty years, numerous scientific revolutions have been planned to improve the ecological balance of agricultural production methods, via a considerable decrease of inorganic compounds like pesticides, synthetic plant growth hormones and fertilizers. A favorable and environment sustainable modernization should be the practice of normal plant biostimulants (PBs) which augment flowering, plant evolution, fruit formation, crop output and efficient nutrient mobilization, and ability to endure a varied array of abiotic stressors. PBs was primarily deciphered via exclusive of various functions similar to fertilizers or plant protection by-products. They are assorted constituents and microbes resorted to boost plant development. This review aimed to present the plant biostimulants definition, major classifications, and impacts on floras, soil and ecology.

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