Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Non-vascular Seedless Plants

Non-vascular Seedless Plants

The diverse plant life on Earth—consisting of nearly 400,000 species—can be divided into three broad categories based on biological characteristics: nonvascular, seedless vascular, and seed plants.

Seedless Vascular Plants

Seedless Vascular Plants

Seedless Vascular Plants Were the First Tall Plants on Earth

Asexual Reproduction

Asexual Reproduction

Asexual reproduction allows plants to reproduce without growing flowers, attracting pollinators, or dispersing seeds. Offspring are genetically identical to the parent and produced without the fusion of male and female gametes.

Introduction to Seed Plants

Introduction to Seed Plants

Most plants are seed plants—characterized by seeds, pollen, and reduced gametophytes. Seed plants include gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...

Formation of Species

Formation of Species

Speciation describes the formation of one or more new species from one or sometimes multiple original species. The resulting species are discrete from the parent species, and barriers to reproduction will typically exist. There are two primary mechanisms, speciation with and without geographic isolation—allopatric and sympatric speciation, respectively.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Sex determination in land plants.

Current biology : CB·2026

Same author

Testing for the Genomic Footprint of Conflict Between Life Stages in an Angiosperm and Moss Species.

Genome biology and evolution·2025

Same author

Mating-system evolution in predominantly haploid species: a commentary on Clo et al. (2025).

Journal of evolutionary biology·2025

Same author

Ancient reticulation, incomplete lineage sorting and the evolution of the pyrenoid at the dawn of hornwort diversification.

Annals of botany·2025

Same author

All tangled up: Unraveling phylogenetics and reticulate evolution in the vining ferns, Lygodium (Schizaeales).

American journal of botany·2024

Same author

Establishing CRISPR-Cas9 in the sexually dimorphic moss, Ceratodon purpureus.

The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 14, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

Recurrent evolution of dioecy in bryophytes.

Stuart F McDaniel¹, John Atwood, J Gordon Burleigh

¹Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA. stuartmcdaniel@ufl.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|January 30, 2013

Summary

Mosses show remarkable flexibility in their sexual systems, with more transitions from hermaphroditism to separate sexes (dioecy) than the reverse. This lability impacts diversification rates, offering insights into sexual system evolution.

More Related Videos

BtM, a Low-cost Open-source Datalogger to Estimate the Water Content of Nonvascular Cryptogams

BtM, a Low-cost Open-source Datalogger to Estimate the Water Content of Nonvascular Cryptogams

Published on: March 25, 2019

Streamlined Sampling and Cultivation of the Pelagic Cosmopolitan Larvacean, Oikopleura dioica

Streamlined Sampling and Cultivation of the Pelagic Cosmopolitan Larvacean, Oikopleura dioica

Published on: June 16, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 14, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

BtM, a Low-cost Open-source Datalogger to Estimate the Water Content of Nonvascular Cryptogams

BtM, a Low-cost Open-source Datalogger to Estimate the Water Content of Nonvascular Cryptogams

Published on: March 25, 2019

Streamlined Sampling and Cultivation of the Pelagic Cosmopolitan Larvacean, Oikopleura dioica

Streamlined Sampling and Cultivation of the Pelagic Cosmopolitan Larvacean, Oikopleura dioica

Published on: June 16, 2020

Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Plant Sciences
Sexual Systems

Background:

The evolution of separate sexes (dioecy) remains a significant puzzle in evolutionary biology.
Understanding the long-term consequences of shifts between sexual systems is crucial but limited.
Both hermaphroditism and dioecy are found across diverse plant clades.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary lability of sexual systems in mosses.
To quantify transition rates between hermaphroditism and dioecy.
To explore the macroevolutionary consequences of different sexual systems in mosses.

Main Methods:

Phylogenetic analysis of moss clades to infer sexual system transitions.
Comparative analysis of transition rates between hermaphroditism and dioecy.
Examination of diversification rates in relation to sexual system.

Main Results:

Identified at least 133 transitions between sexual systems in mosses, indicating high evolutionary lability.
Observed a transition rate from hermaphroditism to dioecy approximately twice as high as the reverse.
Hermaphroditic mosses appear to exhibit higher diversification rates compared to dioecious mosses.

Conclusions:

Mosses provide a powerful model for studying the genomic and macroevolutionary impacts of sexual system evolution.
The high lability and directional bias in sexual system transitions in mosses challenge previous predictions.
Sexual system evolution significantly influences diversification patterns in plants.