SPEECHLESS duplication in grasses expands potential for environmental regulation of stomatal development.

ABSTRACT: Plants acquire atmospheric carbon dioxide for photosynthesis while minimizing water loss and do so by regulating stomatal function and development. The ancestral basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor (TF) gene that drove stomata production in early land plants diversified in sequence and function to become paralogs SPEECHLESS (SPCH), MUTE, and FAMA. Extant angiosperms use these three TFs and their heterodimer partners to regulate stomatal cell identities. Grasses exhibit a particularly interesting set of duplications and losses of SPCH. Using phylogenetic methods, we tracked the duplication of SPCH to the Poaceae-specific rho whole genome duplication and demonstrated that both paralogs remain under selection. By following responses to environmental change in B. distachyon</

SUBMITTER: Erberich JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12327695 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature