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Insights into the origin and evolution of the plant hormone signaling machinery
Chunyang Wang1, Yang Liu1, Si-Shen Li2
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Microbes and Functional Genomics, Jiangsu Engineering and Technology Research Center for Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China (C.W., G.-Z.H.);State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271018, China (C.W., Y.L., S.-S.L.); andDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 (G.-Z.H.).
Abstract:
Plant hormones modulate plant growth, development, and defense. However, many aspects of the origin and evolution of plant hormone signaling pathways remain obscure. Here, we use a comparative genomic and phylogenetic approach to investigate the origin and evolution of nine major plant hormone (abscisic acid, auxin, brassinosteroid, cytokinin, ethylene, gibberellin, jasmonate, salicylic acid, and strigolactone) signaling pathways. Our multispecies genome-wide analysis reveals that: (1) auxin, cytokinin, and strigolactone signaling pathways originated in charophyte lineages; (2) abscisic acid, jasmonate, and salicylic acid signaling pathways arose in the last common ancestor of land plants; (3) gibberellin signaling evolved after the divergence of bryophytes from land plants; (4) the canonical brassinosteroid signaling originated before the emergence of angiosperms but likely after the split of gymnosperms and angiosperms; and (5) the origin of the canonical ethylene signaling pathway postdates shortly the emergence of angiosperms. Our findings might have important implications in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the emergence of land plants.
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