Ancient duplications and grass-specific transposition influenced the evolution of LEAFY transcription factor genes

Bei Gao, Moxian Chen, Xiaoshuang Li, Jianhua ZHANG*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The LFY transcription factor gene family are important in the promotion of cell proliferation and floral development. Understanding their evolution offers an insight into floral development in plant evolution. Though a promiscuous transition intermediate and a gene duplication event within the LFY family had been identified previously, the early evolutionary path of this family remained elusive. Here, we reconstructed the LFY family phylogeny using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference methods incorporating LFY genes from all major lineages of streptophytes. The well-resolved phylogeny unveiled a high-confidence duplication event before the functional divergence of types I and II LFY genes in the ancestry of liverworts, mosses and tracheophytes, supporting sub-functionalization of an ancestral promiscuous gene. The identification of promiscuous genes in Osmunda suggested promiscuous LFY genes experienced an ancient transient duplication. Genomic synteny comparisons demonstrated a deep genomic positional conservation of LFY genes and an ancestral lineage-specific transposition activity in grasses.

Original languageEnglish
Article number237
JournalCommunications Biology
Volume2
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)

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