Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica
Understanding the molecular basis of morphological shifts is a fundamental question of evolutionary biology. New morphologies may arise through the birth/death of genes (gene gain/loss) or by reutilizing existing gene sets. Yet, the relative contribution of these two processes to radical morphologic...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Plant Science |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2020.00747/full |
| _version_ | 1818336528096559104 |
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| author | Alexander Kirbis Manuel Waller Mariana Ricca Zoe Bont Anna Neubauer Bernard Goffinet Péter Szövényi |
| author_facet | Alexander Kirbis Manuel Waller Mariana Ricca Zoe Bont Anna Neubauer Bernard Goffinet Péter Szövényi |
| author_sort | Alexander Kirbis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Understanding the molecular basis of morphological shifts is a fundamental question of evolutionary biology. New morphologies may arise through the birth/death of genes (gene gain/loss) or by reutilizing existing gene sets. Yet, the relative contribution of these two processes to radical morphological shifts is still poorly understood. Here, we use the model system of two mosses, Funaria hygrometrica and Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens, to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying contrasting sporophyte architectures. We used comparative analysis of time-series expression data for four stages of sporophyte development in both species to address this question in detail. We found that large-scale differences in sporophytic architecture are mainly governed by orthologous (i.e., shared) genes frequently experiencing temporal gene expression shifts between the two species. While the absolute number of species-specific genes expressed during sporophyte development is somewhat smaller, we observed a significant increase of their proportion in preferentially sporophyte expressed genes, suggesting a fundamental role in the sporophyte phase. However, further functional studies are necessary to determine their contribution to diverging sporophyte morphologies. Our results add to the growing set of studies suggesting that radical changes in morphology may rely on the heterochronic expression of conserved regulators. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T14:40:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0fc7b76ea9f448a195e9929a7185b9d8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-462X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T14:40:45Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-0fc7b76ea9f448a195e9929a7185b9d82022-12-21T23:41:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2020-06-011110.3389/fpls.2020.00747536394Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometricaAlexander Kirbis0Manuel Waller1Mariana Ricca2Zoe Bont3Anna Neubauer4Bernard Goffinet5Péter Szövényi6Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment for BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandDepartment of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United StatesDepartment of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Zurich, SwitzerlandUnderstanding the molecular basis of morphological shifts is a fundamental question of evolutionary biology. New morphologies may arise through the birth/death of genes (gene gain/loss) or by reutilizing existing gene sets. Yet, the relative contribution of these two processes to radical morphological shifts is still poorly understood. Here, we use the model system of two mosses, Funaria hygrometrica and Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens, to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying contrasting sporophyte architectures. We used comparative analysis of time-series expression data for four stages of sporophyte development in both species to address this question in detail. We found that large-scale differences in sporophytic architecture are mainly governed by orthologous (i.e., shared) genes frequently experiencing temporal gene expression shifts between the two species. While the absolute number of species-specific genes expressed during sporophyte development is somewhat smaller, we observed a significant increase of their proportion in preferentially sporophyte expressed genes, suggesting a fundamental role in the sporophyte phase. However, further functional studies are necessary to determine their contribution to diverging sporophyte morphologies. Our results add to the growing set of studies suggesting that radical changes in morphology may rely on the heterochronic expression of conserved regulators.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2020.00747/fulltranscriptomicssporophyte developmentmossesFunariaceaeRNAseq |
| spellingShingle | Alexander Kirbis Manuel Waller Mariana Ricca Zoe Bont Anna Neubauer Bernard Goffinet Péter Szövényi Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica Frontiers in Plant Science transcriptomics sporophyte development mosses Funariaceae RNAseq |
| title | Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica |
| title_full | Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica |
| title_fullStr | Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica |
| title_short | Transcriptional Landscapes of Divergent Sporophyte Development in Two Mosses, Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens and Funaria hygrometrica |
| title_sort | transcriptional landscapes of divergent sporophyte development in two mosses physcomitrium physcomitrella patens and funaria hygrometrica |
| topic | transcriptomics sporophyte development mosses Funariaceae RNAseq |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2020.00747/full |
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