What are the advantages of gymnosperm DNA replication?

Plants are DNA reservoirs

A new study shows that this duplication event is crucial throughout the evolutionary history of gymnosperms.

Gregory Stull, a PhD student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the lead author of the study, said: "This event at the beginning of evolution created opportunities for genetic evolution, creating new functions that might help gymnosperms.

Take a closer look at gymnosperms

Although more than two sets of chromosomes-a phenomenon called polyploidy-are rare in animals, they are very common in plants

However, so far, how polyploidy affects gymnosperm evolution is unclear

The genetics of gymnosperms is also complex

However, the recent collaboration of plant biologists including Soltis to obtain a large number of gene sequences from more than 1,000 plants has opened new doors for scientists trying to piece together the long history of terrestrial plant evolution

Genome duplication produces gymnosperms

By comparing the DNA of living gymnosperms, researchers were able to go back in time and found evidence of multiple ancient genome duplication events consistent with the origin of the main taxa

Gymnosperms have experienced major extinctions in their long history, so it is difficult to understand the exact nature of their relationship

In each case, the analysis revealed the close connection between repetitive DNA and the evolution of unique traits

Competition and climate change have led to extinction and diversification

Stull and his colleagues also wanted to know whether genome duplication would affect the rate of evolution of new gymnosperm species

Today, there are about 1,000 species of gymnosperms, and they don’t seem to be many compared to the 300,000 or so flowering plants

Before the asteroid extinction event 66 million years ago, gymnosperms still thrived, the most famous being the extinction of dinosaurs

But the results of this study indicate that at least some gymnosperm groups began to make a comeback 20 million years ago, which coincided with the Earth’s transition to a cooler, drier climate

Co-author, Director of the Florida Museum, and Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida, Pamela Soltis said: "We have seen in history that gymnosperms have not only continued to decline, but they are actually diversifying in number of species, which makes their evolutionary history even greater.

Although some gymnosperms cannot cope with the dual specter of climate change and competition, other gymnosperms have advantages in certain habitats because it is these characteristics that caused them to lose out in the ancient competition with flowering plants

Pamela Soltis said: "In some aspects, gymnosperms may not be as flexible
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They have to'wait' until the climate becomes more favorable to achieve diversification
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In some environments, gymnosperms adapt to extreme environments
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In the pine forests of southeastern North America, longleaf pine has adapted to frequent fires that burned their competition to ashes, while conifers dominate the northern forests of the far north
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But if the fire or cold is taken away, flowering plants will soon begin to invade
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Although gymnosperms are still in the process of diversification, they have been interrupted by man-made environmental changes
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Currently, more than 40% of gymnosperms are threatened with extinction due to the cumulative pressure of climate change and habitat loss
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Future research clarifies how their basic genes allow them to persist until now, which may provide scientists with a better framework to ensure that they can survive well in the future
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Stull said: "Although some conifers and cycad communities have undergone considerable changes in the past 20 million years, many species have very limited distribution and are in danger of extinction
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" Efforts to reduce habitat loss may contribute to protecting the current Many species threatened with extinction are critical
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1038/s41477-021-00964-4