The neglected mystery of plant evolution in "eLife"

Sometimes in research, as in other areas of life, the answers to basic questions may be obvious

In a study published by eLife, a research team led by the Nara Institute of Science and Technology found that an ancestral function of plant KNOX/BELL protein is to activate zygotes (the first diploid cell formed by the fusion of male and female gametes, also known as Germ cells).

One of the core issues of developmental biology is how the parental genome is mixed and activated in the fertilized egg to begin diploid development

"Whether the different functions of KNOX and BELL are realized in land plants and algae, respectively, is unclear," said Keiji Nakajima, senior author of the study

To investigate this, the research team observed a basic land plant species- Marchantia polymorpha ( Marchantia polymorpha ), which has recently been considered a good model for studying the evolution of land plants, especially in the study of sexual reproduction

"Our results indicate that the ancestral role of the KNOX/BELL transcription factor is zygote activation," Nakajima explained

The results of this research will be of great significance to plant biologists in the fields of embryo and organ formation, sexual reproduction and evolution

###

eLife

DOI

10.