In addition, we recover multiple species-specific duplications in ferns and lycophytes and large-scale duplications possibly correlated with the occurrence of whole genome duplication (WGD) events in Equisetales and Salviniales. We recover the previously identified seed plant duplication that results in LEAFY and NEEDLY paralogs. We perform Maximum Likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analyses for the LFY gene lineage in embryophytes with expanded sampling in lycophytes and ferns. However, their putative plesiomorphic role in plant reproductive transition in vascular plants remains untested. The available expression and functional data of these genes in embryophytes suggest that LFY genes control a plethora of processes including the first zygotic cell division in bryophytes, shoot cell divisions of the gametophyte and sporophyte in ferns, cone differentiation in gymnosperms and floral meristem identity in flowering plants. The LEAFY ( LFY ) transcription factors are present in algae and across land plants.

To that of any Ceratopteris MADS-box gene previously reported, suggesting that the induction of MADS-box genes by FLO/LFY is not established at the stage of ferns. These patterns of expression are dissimilar Expression of CrLFY2 was also prominent in tissues, including shoot tips and circinate reproductive leaves. CrLFY1 expression was prominent in tissues including shoot tips and circinate reproductive leaves, but very weak in other tissuesĮxamined. The expression patterns of the Ceratopteris LFY genes (CrLFY1 and 2) were assessed. The FLO/LFY gene phylogenetic tree indicates that both duplication and loss of FLO/LFY homologs occurred during the course of vascular plant evolution. robustum), three fern allies (Psilotum nudum, Equisetum arvense, and Isoetes asiatica), and a moss (Physcomitrella patens). To investigate the origin of theįloral homeotic gene regulatory cascade involving the FLO/LFY gene, FLO/LFY homologs were cloned from a leptosporangiate fern (Ceratopteris richardii), two eusporangiate ferns (Angiopteris lygodiifolia and Botrychium multifidum var. The Arabidopsis LFY gene is a positive regulator of floral homeotic genes, and homologs of the FLO/LFY gene family in other angiosperms and gymnosperms are likely to have a similar function. Some MADS-box genes function as floral homeotic genes.

Pine young staminate cone xylem phlo