Embryological evidence for developmental lability during early angiosperm evolution

Recent advances in angiosperm phylogeny reconstruction(1-3), palaeobotany(4,5) and comparative organismic biology(6-8) have provided the impetus for a major re-evaluation of the earliest phases of the diversification of flowering plants. We now know that within the first fifteen million years of angiosperm history, three major lineages of flowering plants - monocotyledons, eumagnoliids and eudicotyledons - were established(5), and that within this window of time, tremendous variation in vegetative and floral characteristics evolved. Here I report on a novel type of embryo sac ( angiosperm female gametophyte or haploid egg-producing structure) in Amborella trichopoda, the sole member of the most ancient extant angiosperm lineage. This is the first new pattern of embryo sac structure to be discovered among angiosperms in well over half a century. This discovery also supports the emerging view(9-12) that the earliest phases of angiosperm evolution were characterized by an extensive degree of developmental experimentation and structural lability, and may provide evidence of a critical link to the gymnospermous ancestors of flowering plants.