Gaudinier Allison, Blackman Benjamin K
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
New Phytol. 2020 Mar;225(5):1883-1898. doi: 10.1111/nph.16205. Epub 2019 Oct 26.
Although it is well appreciated that genetic studies of flowering time regulation have led to fundamental advances in the fields of molecular and developmental biology, the ways in which genetic studies of flowering time diversity have enriched the field of evolutionary biology have received less attention despite often being equally profound. Because flowering time is a complex, environmentally responsive trait that has critical impacts on plant fitness, crop yield, and reproductive isolation, research into the genetic architecture and molecular basis of its evolution continues to yield novel insights into our understanding of domestication, adaptation, and speciation. For instance, recent studies of flowering time variation have reconstructed how, when, and where polygenic evolution of phenotypic plasticity proceeded from standing variation and de novo mutations; shown how antagonistic pleiotropy and temporally varying selection maintain polymorphisms in natural populations; and provided important case studies of how assortative mating can evolve and facilitate speciation with gene flow. In addition, functional studies have built detailed regulatory networks for this trait in diverse taxa, leading to new knowledge about how and why developmental pathways are rewired and elaborated through evolutionary time.
尽管人们充分认识到开花时间调控的遗传学研究在分子生物学和发育生物学领域取得了根本性进展，但开花时间多样性的遗传学研究丰富进化生物学领域的方式却较少受到关注，尽管其影响往往同样深刻。由于开花时间是一个复杂的、对环境有响应的性状，对植物适应性、作物产量和生殖隔离有至关重要的影响，因此对其进化的遗传结构和分子基础的研究继续为我们对驯化、适应和物种形成的理解带来新的见解。例如，最近关于开花时间变异的研究重建了表型可塑性的多基因进化如何、何时以及何地从现存变异和新生突变中产生；展示了拮抗多效性和随时间变化的选择如何在自然种群中维持多态性；并提供了重要的案例研究，说明选型交配如何进化并促进基因流导致的物种形成。此外，功能研究已经为不同分类群的这一性状建立了详细的调控网络，从而产生了关于发育途径如何以及为何在进化过程中被重新连接和细化的新知识。
