Abstract
Plant evolution has been characterised by a series of major novelties in their vegetative and reproductive traits that have led to greater complexity. Underpinning this diversification has been the evolution of the genome. When viewed at the scale of the plant kingdom, plant genome evolution has been punctuated by conspicuous instances of gene and whole-genome duplication, horizontal gene transfer and extensive gene loss. The periods of dynamic genome evolution often coincide with the evolution of key traits, demonstrating the coevolution of plant genomes and phenotypes at a macroevolutionary scale. Conventionally, plant complexity and diversity have been considered through the lens of gene duplication and the role of gene loss in plant evolution remains comparatively unexplored. However, in light of reductive evolution across multiple plant lineages, the association between gene loss and plant phenotypic diversity warrants greater attention.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2204-2209 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | New Phytologist |
| Volume | 240 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 2 Sept 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Authors New Phytologist © 2023 New Phytologist Foundation.
Funding
JWC acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust (award: RPG‐2019‐004) and Jim Fouracre, Alistair Hetherington and Philip Donoghue for useful discussions and three anonymous reviewers for their comments and improvement of the manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Leverhulme Trust | RPG‐2019‐004 |
Keywords
- gene duplication
- gene loss
- genomics
- land plants
- phylogenomics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physiology
- Plant Science