The origin of mechanical advantage in angiosperms
Manandhar, A.; McAdam, S.; Rockwell, F. E.; Fang, y.; Brodribb, T.; Holbrook, N. M.
Plant Evolution
Every tomato, apple, and oak in your yard owes its ability to thrive in heat and drought partly to a microscopic pore response that evolved in the ancestor of all flowering plants — understanding its ancient origin helps explain why angiosperms came to dominate nearly every landscape you walk through.
Flowers and fruit-bearing plants have tiny pores on their leaves called stomata that open and close to let in carbon dioxide and release water. Scientists discovered that a special mechanical trick — where surrounding cells help push these pores open wider — exists in every flowering plant tested, including the most ancient lineage alive today. This means the trick is as old as flowering plants themselves, and it likely helped them out-compete other plants to become the dominant greenery on the planet.
Key Findings
Mechanical advantage in stomatal opening was confirmed in 14 newly tested species spanning the earliest-diverging angiosperm lineages, bringing the total surveyed to at least 230 species across 85 families.
The trait is present in Amborella trichopoda, the single species considered sister to all other flowering plants, indicating it evolved once in the common ancestor of all angiosperms.
The researchers hypothesize that without this stomatal mechanical advantage, flowering plants could not have fully exploited their water-transport innovations — suggesting it was a key driver of angiosperm ecological dominance.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A key mechanism that lets flowering plants open their stomata wide — and thus grow faster and more productively — originated once, in the very first flowering plant ancestor, and has been present in all angiosperms ever since. This trait likely enabled the explosive success of flowering plants on Earth.
Abstract Preview
O_LIMechanical interaction between guard cells and epidermal pavement cells enables large stomatal apertures and high productivity in angiosperms. We do not know when this response evolved, but ove...
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Amborella is a monotypic genus of understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and the order Amborellales and contains a single species, Amborella trichopoda. Am...