The early evolution of land plants, from fossils to genomics: a commentary on Lang (1937) 'On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales'.
Dianne Edwards,Paul Kenrick +1 more
TLDR
The developing knowledge of the composition of early land-based ecosystems and the interactions among their various components is contributing to the understanding of how life on land affects key Earth Systems (e.g. carbon cycle).Abstract:
During the 1920s, the botanist W. H. Lang set out to collect and investigate some very unpromising fossils of uncertain affinity, which predated the known geological record of life on land. His discoveries led to a landmark publication in 1937, ‘On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales’, in which he revealed a diversity of small fossil organisms of great simplicity that shed light on the nature of the earliest known land plants. These and subsequent discoveries have taken on new relevance as botanists seek to understand the plant genome and the early evolution of fundamental organ systems. Also, our developing knowledge of the composition of early land-based ecosystems and the interactions among their various components is contributing to our understanding of how life on land affects key Earth Systems (e.g. carbon cycle). The emerging paradigm is one of early life on land dominated by microbes, small bryophyte-like organisms and lichens. Collectively called cryptogamic covers, these are comparable with those that dominate certain ecosystems today. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant Evolution: Landmarks on the Path to Terrestrial Life
Jan de Vries,John M. Archibald +1 more
TL;DR: Recent progress and problems in inferring the biology of the algal progenitor of the terrestrial photosynthetic macrobiome are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Development and genetics in the evolution of land plant body plans.
TL;DR: The data place plant evo-devo research at the cusp of discovering the developmental and genetic changes driving the radiation of land plant body plans, and the origins of morphological diversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
The evolution of diatoms and their biogeochemical functions.
Anne-Sophie Benoiston,Federico Matias Ibarbalz,Lucie Bittner,Lionel Guidi,Lionel Guidi,Oliver Jahn,Stephanie Dutkiewicz,Chris Bowler +7 more
TL;DR: The current review aims to synthesize current information about the evolution and biogeochemical functions of diatoms as they rose to prominence in the global ocean.
Journal ArticleDOI
The origin and early evolution of vascular plant shoots and leaves.
TL;DR: The evidence pinpoints testable developmental and genetic hypotheses relating to the origin of branching and indeterminate shoot architectures prior to the evolution of leaves, and demonstrates underestimation of polyphyly in the Evolution of leaves from branching forms in ‘telome theory’ hypotheses of leaf evolution.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant evolution and terrestrialization during Palaeozoic times—The phylogenetic context
TL;DR: The new term “proembryophytic phase” is introduced to define the very long period of time during which the green algae ancestor of land plants acquired all the evolutionary characters that ultimately allowed their terrestrialization since the late Precambrian.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The Physcomitrella Genome Reveals Evolutionary Insights into the Conquest of Land by Plants
Stefan A. Rensing,Daniel Lang,Andreas Zimmer,Astrid Terry,Asaf Salamov,Harris Shapiro,Tomoaki Nishiyama,Pierre-François Perroud,Erika Lindquist,Yasuko Kamisugi,Takako Tanahashi,Takako Tanahashi,Keiko Sakakibara,Tomomichi Fujita,Kazuko Oishi,Tadasu Shin-I,Yoko Kuroki,Atsushi Toyoda,Yutaka Suzuki,Shin-ichi Hashimoto,Kazuo Yamaguchi,Sumio Sugano,Yuji Kohara,Yuji Kohara,Asao Fujiyama,Asao Fujiyama,Aldwin M. Anterola,Setsuyuki Aoki,Neil W. Ashton,W. Brad Barbazuk,Elizabeth I. Barker,Jeffrey L. Bennetzen,Robert E. Blankenship,Sung Hyun Cho,Susan K. Dutcher,Mark Estelle,Jeffrey A. Fawcett,Heidrun Gundlach,Kousuke Hanada,Alexander Heyl,Karen A. Hicks,Karen A. Hicks,Jon Hughes,Martin Lohr,Klaus F. X. Mayer,Alexander N. Melkozernov,Takashi Murata,Takashi Murata,David R. Nelson,Birgit Pils,Michael J. Prigge,Bernd Reiss,Tanya Renner,Stephane Rombauts,Paul J. Rushton,Anton A. Sanderfoot,Gabriele Schween,Shin-Han Shiu,Kurt Stueber,Frederica L. Theodoulou,Hank Tu,Yves Van de Peer,P. J. Verrier,Elizabeth R. Waters,Andrew J. Wood,Lixing Yang,David J. Cove,David J. Cove,Andrew C. Cuming,Mitsuyasu Hasebe,Mitsuyasu Hasebe,Susan Lucas,Brent D. Mishler,Ralf Reski,Igor V. Grigoriev,Ralph S. Quatrano,Jeffrey L. Boore,Jeffrey L. Boore +77 more
TL;DR: This comparison reveals genomic changes concomitant with the evolutionary movement to land, including a general increase in gene family complexity; loss of genes associated with aquatic environments; acquisition of genes for tolerating terrestrial stresses; and the development of the auxin and abscisic acid signaling pathways for coordinating multicellular growth and dehydration response.
Journal ArticleDOI
The origin and early evolution of plants on land
TL;DR: A recent surge of interest in palaeobotanical discoveries and advances in the systematics of living plants provides a revised perspective on the evolution of early land plants and suggests new directions for future research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants
Norman J. Wickett,Siavash Mirarab,Nam Nguyen,Tandy Warnow,Eric J. Carpenter,Naim Matasci,Saravanaraj Ayyampalayam,Michael S. Barker,J. Gordon Burleigh,Matthew A. Gitzendanner,Brad R. Ruhfel,Brad R. Ruhfel,Eric K. Wafula,Joshua P. Der,Sean W. Graham,Sarah Mathews,Michael Melkonian,Douglas E. Soltis,Douglas E. Soltis,Pamela S. Soltis,Pamela S. Soltis,Nicholas W. Miles,Carl J. Rothfels,Carl J. Rothfels,Lisa Pokorny,Lisa Pokorny,A. Jonathan Shaw,Lisa DeGironimo,Dennis W. Stevenson,Barbara Surek,Juan Carlos Villarreal,Béatrice Roure,Hervé Philippe,Hervé Philippe,Claude W. dePamphilis,Tao Chen,Michael K. Deyholos,Regina S. Baucom,Toni M. Kutchan,Megan M. Augustin,Jun Wang,Yong Zhang,Zhijian Tian,Zhixiang Yan,Xiaolei Wu,Xiao Sun,Gane Ka-Shu Wong,Jim Leebens-Mack +47 more
TL;DR: Strong and robust support is found for a sister-group relationship between land plants and one group of streptophyte green algae, the Zygnematophyceae, and suggests that phylogenetic hypotheses used to understand the evolution of fundamental plant traits should be reevaluated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contribution of cryptogamic covers to the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen
W. Elbert,Bettina Weber,Susannah M. Burrows,Jörg Steinkamp,Burkhard Büdel,Meinrat O. Andreae,Ulrich Pöschl +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, photoautotrophic communities, which are capable of synthesizing their own food from inorganic substances using sunlight, were analyzed and found to account for nearly half of the biological nitrogen fixation on land.
Journal ArticleDOI
The deepest divergences in land plants inferred from phylogenomic evidence.
Yin Long Qiu,Libo Li,Libo Li,Bin Wang,Bin Wang,Zhi-Duan Chen,Volker Knoop,Milena Groth-Malonek,Olena Dombrovska,Olena Dombrovska,Jungho Lee,Livija Kent,Joshua S. Rest,George F. Estabrook,Tory A. Hendry,David W. Taylor,Christopher M. Testa,Mathew Ambros,Barbara Crandall-Stotler,R. Joel Duff,Michael Stech,Wolfgang Frey,Dietmar Quandt,Charles C. Davis +23 more
TL;DR: It is shown here that densely sampled taxon trees built with multiple genes provide an indispensable test of taxon-sparse trees inferred from genome sequences.
Related Papers (5)
The origin and early evolution of plants on land
Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants
Norman J. Wickett,Siavash Mirarab,Nam Nguyen,Tandy Warnow,Eric J. Carpenter,Naim Matasci,Saravanaraj Ayyampalayam,Michael S. Barker,J. Gordon Burleigh,Matthew A. Gitzendanner,Brad R. Ruhfel,Brad R. Ruhfel,Eric K. Wafula,Joshua P. Der,Sean W. Graham,Sarah Mathews,Michael Melkonian,Douglas E. Soltis,Douglas E. Soltis,Pamela S. Soltis,Pamela S. Soltis,Nicholas W. Miles,Carl J. Rothfels,Carl J. Rothfels,Lisa Pokorny,Lisa Pokorny,A. Jonathan Shaw,Lisa DeGironimo,Dennis W. Stevenson,Barbara Surek,Juan Carlos Villarreal,Béatrice Roure,Hervé Philippe,Hervé Philippe,Claude W. dePamphilis,Tao Chen,Michael K. Deyholos,Regina S. Baucom,Toni M. Kutchan,Megan M. Augustin,Jun Wang,Yong Zhang,Zhijian Tian,Zhixiang Yan,Xiaolei Wu,Xiao Sun,Gane Ka-Shu Wong,Jim Leebens-Mack +47 more