Environmental gradients reveal stress hubs predating plant terrestrialization
NATURE PLANTS(2022)
Abstract
Plant terrestrialization brought forth the land plants (embryophytes). Embryophytes account for most of the biomass on land and evolved from streptophyte algae in a singular event. Recent advances have unraveled the first full genomes of the closest algal relatives of land plants; among the first such species was Mesotaenium endlicherianum . Here, we used fine-combed RNAseq in tandem with photophysiological assessment on Mesotaenium exposed to a continuous range of temperature and light cues. Our data establish a grid of 42 different conditions, resulting in 128 transcriptomes and ~1.5 Tbp (~9.9 billion reads) of data to study combinatory effects of stress response using clustering along gradients. We describe major hubs in genetic networks underpinning stress response and acclimation in the molecular physiology of Mesotaenium . Our data suggest that lipid droplet formation, plastid and cell wall-derived signals denominate molecular programs since more than 600 million years of streptophyte evolution—before plants made their first steps on land.
### Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
MoreTranslated text
Key words
Evolution,Plant evolution,Transcriptomics,Life Sciences,general,Plant Sciences
AI Read Science
Must-Reading Tree
Example
Generate MRT to find the research sequence of this paper
Chat Paper
Summary is being generated by the instructions you defined