evolutionary-genomics
Evolutionary genomics is the study of how genomes change over time through processes such as mutation, selection, genetic drift, and gene flow, using DNA sequence data to reconstruct the history and mechanisms of evolution. In plant science, this field reveals how plants have adapted to diverse environments, how key traits like flowering time, stress tolerance, and polyploidy have arisen, and how domestication has shaped crop species. Understanding the evolutionary history encoded in plant genomes guides breeding strategies and helps predict how plants may respond to future environmental pressures.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-14
Researchers traced the evolutionary origins of a family of plant gene regulators called DIVARICATA (DIV), revealing they arose from an ancient gene fusion event and were later reshaped through gene domain losses—ultimately forming a molecular on/off switch that controls how plants grow and develop.
The DIVARICATA (DIV) gene arose from the fusion of two ancestral MYB genes, originally producing a three-domain protein (MYBA-MYB1-MYB2) before losing the MYBA domain in green plants.
Further truncation of the MYB1 domain gave rise to a competing gene family (LFG), which retains only the MYB2 domain, illustrating how gene shortening repeatedly created new regulatory players.
Components of the DIV-based regulatory network are found across a broad diversity of eukaryotes, suggesting this on/off switch system predates the evolution of land plants and may be ancestral to a large group of complex organisms.