U.S. scientists may have solved Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery" of flowering plants' rapid evolution after they appeared 140 million years ago.
The researchers from the Floral Genome Project at Penn State University, with an international team of collaborators, developed new statistical methods to analyze incomplete DNA sequences from 13 strategically selected plant species.
The scientists say they uncovered a previously hidden "paleopolyploidy" event -- an ancient whole-genome duplication that preceded the appearance of the ancestral flowering plant.
"We found a concentration of duplicated genes that suggests a whole-genome duplication event in the earliest flowering plants," said Claude dePamphilis, associate professor of biology and senior author of the paper. "A polyploidy event early in the history of flowering plants could explain their sudden evolution."
The research is presented in the June issue of Genome Research.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Related stories:
Extreme weather postpones the flowering time of plants
Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than previously presumed. A one-month drought postpones the time of flowering of grassland and heathland plants in Central Europe by an average of 4 days. With this a so-called 100-year drought event equates to approx. a decade of global warming.
Current mass extinction spurs major study of which plants to save
The Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing, scientists say.
Scientists propose the creation of a new type of seed bank
While an international seed bank in a Norwegian island has been gathering news about its agricultural collection, a group of U.S. scientists has just published an article outlining a different kind of seed bank, one that proposes the gathering of wild species –– at intervals in the future –– effectively capturing evolution in action.
Flowering plants evolved very quickly into 5 groups
University of Florida and University of Texas at Austin scientists have shed light on what Charles Darwin called the “abominable mystery” of early plant evolution.
Leibniz Prize winners 2007 announced
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) has announced the winners of its 2007 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. At its meeting on 7 December 2006, the DFG Joint Committee named ten scientists and academics — eight men and two women — as recipients of Germany’s most highly endowed research award. For the first time, the prize winners for 2007 will receive up to 2.5 million euros (previously: 1.55 million euros) and be able to use these funds flexibly over a period of seven years (previously: five years) to finance their research.
Hail to the Hornworts: New Plant Family Tree Sheds Light on Evolution of Life Cycles
In the history of life on earth, one intriguing mystery is how plants made the transition from water to land and then went on to diversify into the array of vegetation we see today, from simple mosses and liverworts to towering redwoods.
Whole genome fine map of rice completed
Rice is a staple crop for more than half of the world's population, and it was hoped that the availability of its genome sequence might enable scientists to develop more productive and environment friendly rice strains. Furthermore, the rice genome might provide the key to understanding the genetics of other major cereal crops, as all of them have much larger genomes.
Researchers investigate how plants adapt to climate
(PhysOrg.com) -- How many mouths does a plant need in order to survive? The answer changes depending on climate, and some of the decisions are made long before a new leaf sprouts.