Genome Sequence Gives Insight Into Evolution Of Flowering Plants

Image Caption: The newly sequenced genome of the Amborella plant will be published in the journal Science on 20 December 2013. The genome sequence sheds new light on a major event in the history of life on Earth: the origin of flowering plants, including all major food crop species. Credit: Sangtae Kim

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

The newly-sequenced genome of the Amborella plant is shedding new light on the origin of the more than 300,000 flowering plants on the Earth today, including all major food crop species.

Amborella trichopoda, a small understory tree found only on the main island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, is unique as the sole survivor of an ancient evolutionary lineage that traces back to the last common ancestor of all flowering plants. This heritage gives the plant a special role in the study of flowering plants, the researchers said.

In the same way that the genome sequence of the platypus a survivor of an ancient lineage can help us study the evolution of all mammals, the genome sequence of Amborella can help us learn about the evolution of all flowers, said study researcher Victor Albert of the University at Buffalo.

The researchers who sequenced the Amborella genome say that it provides conclusive evidence that the ancestor of all flowering plants, including Amborella, evolved following a genome doubling event that occurred about 200 million years ago. Some duplicated genes were lost over time but others took on new functions, including contributions to the development of floral organs, the researchers said.

Genome doubling may, therefore, offer an explanation to Darwins abominable mystery the apparently abrupt proliferation of new species of flowering plants in fossil records dating to the Cretaceous period, said Claude dePamphilis of Penn State University, one of the studys researchers.

Generations of scientists have worked to solve this puzzle.

Comparative analyses of the Amborella genome are already providing scientists with a new perspective on the genetic origins of important traits in all flowering plants, including all major food crop species.

Because of Amborellas pivotal phylogenetic position, it is an evolutionary reference genome that allows us to better understand genome changes in those flowering plants that evolved later, including genome evolution of our many crop plants hence, it will be essential for crop improvement, said Doug Soltis of the University of Florida.

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Genome Sequence Gives Insight Into Evolution Of Flowering Plants