Meagher Laboratory

 

Genomics and Evolution -Index Page

Genomics & Evolution of Plant Gene Families
The meristems of most lycopods and all horsetails, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms give rise to both leaves and reproductive structures. The meristems of more primitive plants, that diverged ~400 MYA (bryophytes and psilophytes) give rise only to reproductive structures. “We propose that early vegetative actins may have taken part in this macroevolution of new structure”.
Why compare gene family and organismal phylogenies?
How big is the plant actin cytoskeletal proteome?
Arabidopsis actin binding proteins are in gene families
Evolutionary trees of genes and gene families studied
  Actin
  Profilin
  Actin-related proteins (ARPs)
  Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit (Rubisco)
  PurD, PurM (de novo purine synthesis)
   
Post-genomics networking of information on gene function
   
“We propose the macroevolution of leaves from “sterilized sporangia” 350-400 million years ago may have been contingent upon the evolution of hundreds of vegetatively expressed cytoskeletal genes.”
Meagher et al., 1999, 2000