Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals conserved programmes underpinning organogenesis and reproduction in land plants

Irene Julca, Camilla Ferrari, María Flores-Tornero, Sebastian Proost, Ann Cathrin Lindner, Dieter Hackenberg, Lenka Steinbachová, Christos Michaelidis, Sónia Gomes Pereira, Chandra Shekhar Misra, Tomokazu Kawashima, Michael Borg, Frédéric Berger, Jacob Goldberg, Mark Johnson, David Honys, David Twell, Stefanie Sprunck, Thomas Dresselhaus, Jörg D. BeckerMarek Mutwil

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The appearance of plant organs mediated the explosive radiation of land plants, which shaped the biosphere and allowed the establishment of terrestrial animal life. The evolution of organs and immobile gametes required the coordinated acquisition of novel gene functions, the co-option of existing genes and the development of novel regulatory programmes. However, no large-scale analyses of genomic and transcriptomic data have been performed for land plants. To remedy this, we generated gene expression atlases for various organs and gametes of ten plant species comprising bryophytes, vascular plants, gymnosperms and flowering plants. A comparative analysis of the atlases identified hundreds of organ- and gamete-specific orthogroups and revealed that most of the specific transcriptomes are significantly conserved. Interestingly, our results suggest that co-option of existing genes is the main mechanism for evolving new organs. In contrast to female gametes, male gametes showed a high number and conservation of specific genes, which indicates that male reproduction is highly specialized. The expression atlas capturing pollen development revealed numerous transcription factors and kinases essential for pollen biogenesis and function.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1143-1159
Number of pages17
JournalNature Plants
Volume7
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2021

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