Evolution of class III homeodomain-leucine zipper genes in streptophytes.

ABSTRACT: Land plants underwent tremendous evolutionary change following the divergence of the ancestral lineage from algal relatives. Several important developmental innovations appeared as the embryophyte clade diversified, leading to the appearance of new organs and tissue types. To understand how these changes came about, we need to identify the fundamental genetic developmental programs that are responsible for growth, patterning, and differentiation and describe how these programs were modified and elaborated through time to produce novel morphologies. Class III homeodomain-leucine zipper (class III HD-Zip) genes, identified in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, provide good candidates for basic land plant patterning genes. We show that these genes may have evolved in a common ancestor of l

SUBMITTER: Floyd SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1461458 | biostudies-literature | 2006 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature