Explaining the origins of adaptive features is a perennial challenge in evolutionary biology. A study on thermophilic cyanobacteria reveals how environmentally induced phenotypic change (plasticity) can pave the way for evolutionary innovation and subsequent adaptation to extreme conditions.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.080 | DOI Listing |
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Emergence and evolution of heterocyte glycolipid biosynthesis enabled specialized nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria.
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Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Den Burg 1790 AB, The Netherlands.
Heterocytes, specialized cells for nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria, are surrounded by heterocyte glycolipids (HGs), which contribute to protection of the nitrogenase enzyme from oxygen. Diverse HGs preserve in the sediment and have been widely used as evidence of past nitrogen fixation, and structural variation has been suggested to preserve taxonomic information and reflect paleoenvironmental conditions. Here, by comprehensive HG identification and screening of HG biosynthetic gene clusters throughout cyanobacteria, we reconstruct the convergent evolutionary history of HG structure, in which different clades produce the same HGs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDistinct patterns of genome size evolution in each bryophyte lineage are not correlated with whole genome duplication.
Ann Bot
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Agassiz Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada.
Background And Aims: Genome size varies by orders of magnitude across land plants, and the factors driving evolutionary increases and decreases in genome size vary across lineages. Bryophytes have the smallest genomes relative to other land plants and there is growing evidence for frequent whole genome duplication (WGD) across the lineage. However, the broad patterns of genome size, chromosome number, and WGD have yet to be characterized across bryophytes in a phylogenetic context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe evolutionary transition from simple chordate body plans to complex vertebrate body plans was driven by the acquisition of the neural crest, a stem cell population that retains broad, multi-germ layer developmental potential long after most embryonic cells have become lineage restricted. We have previously shown that neural crest cells share significant gene regulatory architecture with pluripotent blastula stem cells. Here we examine the roles that Krüppel-like Family (Klf) transcription factors play in these stem cell populations.
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Department of Biological Science, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, Republic of South Korea.
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