Journal
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Volume 230, Issue 4, Pages 1345-1353Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/nph.17161
Keywords
bryophytes; evo‐ devo; gene regulatory networks; plant evolution; plant traits; transcription factors
Categories
Funding
- AgenciaI + D+I [PICT2017-1484, PICT2018-00650]
- Conicet
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Transcription factors play a crucial role in plant evolution, with changes in body plan and physiological responses driving their functional evolution. Some gene regulatory networks are highly conserved, while others emerge in specific lineages. Recent studies offer new insights into the functional evolution of transcription factors.
Transcription factors (TFs) are key components of the transcriptional regulation machinery. In plants, they accompanied the evolution from unicellular aquatic algae to complex flowering plants that dominate the land environment. The adaptations of the body plan and physiological responses required changes in the biological functions of TFs. Some ancestral gene regulatory networks are highly conserved, while others evolved more recently and only exist in particular lineages. The recent emergence of novel model organisms provided the opportunity for comparative studies, producing new insights to infer these evolutionary trajectories. In this review, we comprehensively revisit the recent literature on TFs of nonseed plants and algae, focusing on the molecular mechanisms driving their functional evolution. We discuss the particular contribution of changes in DNA-binding specificity, protein-protein interactions and cis-regulatory elements to gene regulatory networks. Current advances have shown that these evolutionary processes were shaped by changes in TF expression pattern, not through great innovation in TF protein sequences. We propose that the role of TFs associated with environmental and developmental regulation was unevenly conserved during land plant evolution.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available