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Root hairs and rhizoids are cells with rooting functions in land plants. We describe two basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors that control root hair development in the sporophyte (2n) of the angiosperm Arabidopsis thaliana and rhizoid development in the gametophytes (n) of the bryophyte Physcomitrella patens. The phylogeny of land plants supports the hypothesis that early land plants were bryophyte-like and possessed a dominant gametophyte and later the sporophyte rose to dominance. If this hypothesis is correct, our data suggest that the increase in morphological complexity of the sporophyte body in the Paleozoic resulted at least in part from the recruitment of regulatory genes from gametophyte to sporophyte.

Original publication

DOI

10.1126/science.1142618

Type

Journal article

Journal

Science

Publication Date

08/06/2007

Volume

316

Pages

1477 - 1480

Keywords

Amino Acid Sequence, Arabidopsis, Arabidopsis Proteins, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Biological Evolution, Bryopsida, Diploidy, Genes, Plant, Haploidy, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Phylogeny, Plant Epidermis, Plant Proteins, Plant Roots, Plants, Genetically Modified