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Colonization of the land by multicellular green plants was a fundamental step in the evolution of life on earth. Land plants evolved from fresh-water aquatic algae, and the transition to a terrestrial environment required the acquisition of developmental plasticity appropriate to the conditions of water availability, ranging from drought to flood. Here we show that extant bryophytes exhibit submergence-induced developmental plasticity, suggesting that submergence responses evolved relatively early in the evolution of land plants. We also show that a major component of the bryophyte submergence response is controlled by the phytohormone ethylene, using a perception mechanism that has subsequently been conserved throughout the evolution of land plants. Thus a plant environmental response mechanism with major ecological and agricultural importance probably had its origins in the very earliest stages of the colonization of the land.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/tpj.12005

Type

Journal article

Journal

Plant J

Publication Date

12/2012

Volume

72

Pages

947 - 959

Keywords

Physcomitrella patens, ethylene, evolution, phytohormones, submergence, water relations, Base Sequence, Biological Evolution, Bryopsida, Droughts, Ethylenes, Gene Expression Regulation, Plant, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Phylogeny, Plant Growth Regulators, Plant Leaves, Plant Proteins, Plant Shoots, Receptors, Cell Surface, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Stress, Physiological, Water