Biology Department, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Nat Plants. 2018 Jan;4(1):14-22. doi: 10.1038/s41477-017-0085-6. Epub 2018 Jan 3.
A major premise in evolutionary developmental biology is that regulatory changes, often involving cis-regulatory elements, are responsible for much morphological evolution. This premise is supported by recent investigations of animal development, but information is just beginning to accumulate regarding whether it also applies to the evolution of plant morphology. Here, we identify the genetic differences between species in the genus Clarkia that are responsible for evolutionary change in an ecologically important element of floral colour patterns: spot position. The evolutionary shift in spot position was due to two simple genetic changes that resulted in the appearance of a transcription factor binding site mutation in the R2R3 Myb gene that changes spot formation. These genetic changes caused R2R3 Myb to be activated by a different transcription factor that is expressed in a different position in the petal. These results suggest that the regulatory rewiring paradigm is as applicable to plants as it is to animals, and support the hypothesis that cis-regulatory changes may often play a role in plant morphological evolution.
进化发育生物学的一个主要前提是，调控变化（通常涉及顺式调控元件）是导致许多形态进化的原因。这一前提得到了动物发育的最新研究的支持，但关于它是否也适用于植物形态进化的信息才刚刚开始积累。在这里，我们确定了属间的遗传差异克拉克西亚，负责生态重要的花型颜色模式的元素的进化变化：斑点位置。斑点位置的进化转变是由于两个简单的遗传变化，导致 R2R3 Myb 基因中出现转录因子结合位点突变，改变了斑点的形成。这些遗传变化导致 R2R3 Myb 被一种不同的转录因子激活，这种转录因子在花瓣的不同位置表达。这些结果表明，调控重连范式既适用于动物，也适用于植物，并支持顺式调控变化可能经常在植物形态进化中发挥作用的假说。
