Genomic correlates of vascular plant reproductive complexity and the uniqueness of angiosperms.

New Phytol

School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.

Published: February 2025

AI Article Synopsis

  • Whole genome duplication (WGD) is believed to significantly influence plant evolution, particularly in areas like diversification and structural innovation, but its effects are hard to measure across different plant groups.
  • The study analyzed how WGD relates to the complexity of reproductive structures in vascular plants by using various models to assess its impact alongside other factors like genome size and reproductive biology.
  • WGD was notably linked to reproductive complexity specifically in flowering plants (angiosperms), while other factors were more influential for vascular plants overall, suggesting that the combination of polyploidy and specific growth habits contributed to this complexity.

Article Abstract

Whole genome duplication (WGD) likely plays an important role in plant macroevolution, and has been implicated in diversification rate shifts, structural innovations, and increased disparity. But the general effects of WGD are challenging to evaluate, in part due to the difficulty of directly comparing morphological patterns across disparate clades. We explored relationships between WGD and the evolution of reproductive complexity across vascular plants using a metric based on the number of reproductive part types. We used multiple regression models to evaluate the relative importance of inferred WGD events, genome size, and a suite of additional variables relating to growth habit and reproductive biology in explaining part type complexity. WGD was a consistent predictor of reproductive complexity only among angiosperms. Across vascular plants generally, reproductive biology, clade identity, and the presence of bisexual strobili (those that produce microsporangiate and megasporangiate organs) were better predictors of complexity. Angiosperms are unique among vascular plants in combining frequent polyploidy with high-reproductive complexity. Whether WGD is mechanistically linked to floral complexity is unclear, but we suggest widespread polyploidy and increased complexity were ultimately facilitated by the evolution of herbaceous growth habits in early angiosperms.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.20302DOI Listing

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