Project description:Land plant colonization was a pivotal event in the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes. The transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments required complex multisensory systems that enabled plants to perceive and integrate a broader range of environmental cues, such as light intensity and temperature. However, it remains unclear whether this ability was a pre-adaptation or an innovation during early plant terrestrialization. Here, we show that the aquatic streptophyte ancestor of land plants could integrate light and temperature through a complex regulatory network. A conserved regulatory nexus, comprising phytochromes and transcription factors, was active in the last common ancestor of land plants, allowing the first terrestrial colonizers to adapt and flourish on the harsh terrestrial surface of our planet. Thus, we propose that the multisensory integration that enables extant plants to achieve perceptual disambiguation and fine-tune growth in various ecological niches was a pre-adaptation encoded in the genomes of ancestral land plants.
Project description:Chromosome segregation is a vital process for all organisms. The mechanisms underpinning chromosomal partitioning in the archaeal domain remain elusive. Our group has identified the first chromosome segregation system in thermophilic archaea. Sulfolobus solfataricus partition system consists of SegA, an orthologue of bacterial Walker-type ParA proteins; SegB, an archaea-specific DNA binding protein and a cis-acting DNA region. ChIP-seq experiments disclosed multiple SegB binding sites scattered over the chromosome and revealed a novel DNA binding motif.
Project description:Land plant colonization was a pivotal event in the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes. The transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments required complex multisensory systems that enabled plants to perceive and integrate a broader range of environmental cues, such as light intensity and temperature. However, it remains unclear whether this ability was a pre-adaptation or an innovation during early plant terrestrialization. Here, we show that the aquatic streptophyte ancestor of land plants could integrate light and temperature through a complex regulatory network. A conserved regulatory nexus, comprising phytochromes and transcription factors, was active in the last common ancestor of land plants, allowing the first terrestrial colonizers to adapt and flourish on the harsh terrestrial surface of our planet. Thus, we propose that the multisensory integration that enables extant plants to achieve perceptual disambiguation and fine-tune growth in various ecological niches was a pre-adaptation encoded in the genomes of ancestral land plants.