A 400-million-year-old genetic switch shapes how all plants grow
Aguilar-Cruz A, Flores-Sandoval E, Xu Y, Yu Y, Gutiérrez-Ramos X
Crispr
The same molecular circuit that tells a moss-like liverwort where to grow leaves versus stems is still running in your tomatoes, oak trees, and houseplants today, meaning this ancient plant is basically a instruction manual for how all plant growth gets organized.
Researchers used gene-editing tools to disable a key gene in a simple plant called Marchantia, a liverwort that looks like flat green ribbons on damp soil. By breaking this gene, they found a control system involving tiny RNA molecules and the plant hormone auxin that tells cells exactly what to become and where to grow. This same system likely existed in the very first land plants over 400 million years ago and still shapes how modern plants like ferns, flowers, and trees build their bodies today.
Key Findings
CRISPR-Cas9 was used to create loss-of-function mutants of the MpDCL1a gene in Marchantia polymorpha
The miR166/Class III HD-ZIP regulatory circuit controls auxin synthesis, which governs cell identity, patterning, and meristem function
This gene regulatory network likely existed in the last common ancestor of bryophytes and vascular plants over 400 million years ago
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists edited the genes of a simple liverwort plant to discover that a tiny genetic toggle switch involving microRNAs and the hormone auxin has been telling plant cells how to organize themselves into bodies for over 400 million years, since before mosses and trees even split apart.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
microRNA-mediated control of cell fate specification and patterning in Marchantia polymorpha.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules essential for growth and development in eukaryotes. In plants, the master gene DICER-LIKE 1 (DCL1) catalyzes the biogenesis of miRNAs by proces...
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Marchantia is a genus of liverworts in the family Marchantiaceae and the order Marchantiales. The genus was named by French botanist Jean Marchant after his father. The widespread species Marchantia polymorpha has had its genome sequenced and is an incipient model organism.