Title
The selaginella genome identifies genetic changes associated with the evolution of vascular plants
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
5-20-2011
Abstract
Vascular plants appeared ∼410 million years ago, then diverged into several lineages of which only two survive: the euphyllophytes (ferns and seed plants) and the lycophytes. We report here the genome sequence of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii (Selaginella), the first nonseed vascular plant genome reported. By comparing gene content in evolutionarily diverse taxa, we found that the transition from a gametophyte- to a sporophyte-dominated life cycle required far fewer new genes than the transition from a nonseed vascular to a flowering plant, whereas secondary metabolic genes expanded extensively and in parallel in the lycophyte and angiosperm lineages. Selaginella differs in posttranscriptional gene regulation, including small RNA regulation of repetitive elements, an absence of the trans-acting small interfering RNA pathway, and extensive RNA editing of organellar genes.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Science
Volume
332
Issue
6032
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Banks, Jo Ann, Tomoaki Nishiyama, Mitsuyasu Hasebe, John L. Bowman, Michael Gribskov, Claude DePamphilis, Victor A. Albert, Naoki Aono, Tsuyoshi Aoyama, Barbara A. Ambrose, Neil W. Ashton, Michael J. Axtell, Elizabeth Barker, Michael S. Barker, Jeffrey L. Bennetzen, Nicholas D. Bonawitz, Clint Chapple, Chaoyang Cheng, Luiz G. Guedes Correa, Michael Dacre, Jeremy DeBarry, Ingo Dreyer, Marek Elias, Eric M. Engstrom, Mark Estelle, Liang Feng, Cédric Finet, Sandra K. Floyd, and Wolf B. Frommer. "The selaginella genome identifies genetic changes associated with the evolution of vascular plants." Science 332, 6032 (2011): 960-963. doi: 10.1126/science.1203810.