Expansion and contraction of small RNA and methylation machinery throughout plant evolution

The revolution in sequencing has created a wealth of plant genomes that can be mined to understand the evolution of biological complexity. Complexity is often driven by gene duplication, which allows paralogs to specialize in an activity of the ancestral gene or acquire novel functions. Angiosperms encode a variety of gene silencing pathways that share related machinery for small RNA biosynthesis and function. Recent phylogenetic analysis of these gene families plots the expan-sion, specialization, and occasional contraction of this core machinery. This analysis reveals the ancient origin of RNA -directed DNA Methylation in early land plants, or possibly their algal ancestors, as well as ongoing duplications that evolve novel small RNA pathways.

Automated summary

The revolution in sequencing has provided a wealth of plant genomes for studying the evolution of biological complexity. Gene duplication drives complexity, and angiosperms encode various gene silencing pathways. Recent phylogenetic analysis reveals the expansion, specialization, and occasional contraction of these pathways.