Premium
Why we need more non‐seed plant models
Author(s) -
Rensing Stefan A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.14464
Subject(s) - biology , flowering plant , plant species , genome , plant evolution , evolutionary biology , plant biology , botany , ecology , genetics , gene
Summary Out of a hundred sequenced and published land plant genomes, four are not of flowering plants. This severely skewed taxonomic sampling hinders our comprehension of land plant evolution at large. Moreover, most genetically accessible model species are flowering plants as well. If we are to gain a deeper understanding of how plants evolved and still evolve, and which of their developmental patterns are ancestral or derived, we need to study a more diverse set of plants. Here, I thus argue that we need to sequence genomes of so far neglected lineages, and that we need to develop more non‐seed plant model species.ContentsSummary 355 I. Introduction 355 II. Evo‐devo: inference of how plants evolved 356 III. We need more diversity 356 IV. Genomes are necessary, but not sufficient 357 V. What do we need? 358 VI. Conclusions 359Acknowledgements 359References 359