Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Matthias Schleiden Institute - Genetics, Philosophenweg, Jena, Germany.
J Exp Bot. 2019 May 9;70(10):2615-2622. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erz106.
The origin of the angiosperm flower is a long-standing problem of botany and evolutionary biology. One widely accepted milestone towards solving it is the reconstruction of the ancestral flower of extant angiosperms, here termed 'AFEA'. A recent approach employing novel methods gave results that were not anticipated. Most notably the reconstructed phyllotaxis of AFEA soon was criticized and sparked a heated debate in the literature. To better explain, clarify, and perhaps cool the debate, we first summarize the results of previous attempts to reconstruct AFEA and contrast them with the more recent, controversial prediction of its structure. We then outline the major arguments made by contrasting parties in the recent debate. Finally, we discuss two key topics, the molecular mechanism of phyllotaxis and the role of gene regulatory networks during flower development and evolution, that may help to clarify the issue in the intermediate future.
被子植物花的起源是植物学和进化生物学中长期存在的问题。解决这个问题的一个被广泛接受的里程碑是重建现存被子植物的祖花，这里称为“AFEA”。最近采用新方法的一种方法给出了出乎意料的结果。最值得注意的是，AFEA 的重建叶序很快受到批评，并在文献中引发了激烈的争论。为了更好地解释、澄清，也许是平息这场争论，我们首先总结了以前尝试重建 AFEA 的结果，并将其与最近更具争议性的结构预测进行了对比。然后，我们概述了最近争论中对比双方提出的主要论点。最后，我们讨论了两个关键主题，即叶序的分子机制以及基因调控网络在花发育和进化过程中的作用，这些主题可能有助于在中期澄清这个问题。
