Thomas Shawn K, An Hong, Pires J Chris
Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Bioinformatics and Analytics Core, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2023 Jan;32(2):275-277. doi: 10.1111/mec.16796. Epub 2022 Dec 8.
Whole-genome duplication (WGD) is an important force in plant diversification and novel environment adaptation. Various hypotheses have been proposed on the mechanism of how WGD influences this evolutionary process from chromosome recombination to genetic diversity (Qi et al., 2021). In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Xu et al. (2022) conduct a comparative transcriptome study across species to investigate the effects of WGD on plant adaptation and the differentiation of paralogues within two distantly related mangrove species (Xu et al., 2021). They identify retained WGD-derived duplicate pairs, assess their contributions to the salt tolerance phenotype, and propose a model for adaptation expansion in mangroves through the neofunctionalization of WGD-derived duplicate genes. Their results show that neofunctionalized copies of known salt tolerance-related genes show upregulated expression in fluctuating salinity (i.e., fresh and hypersaline) compared to the optimal medium salinity environment. This suggests that after WGD, retained duplicates increase genomic plasticity allowing for adaptation to new and unstable environments.
全基因组复制（WGD）是植物多样化和适应新环境的重要力量。关于WGD如何影响从染色体重组到遗传多样性的这一进化过程的机制，已经提出了各种假说（Qi等人，2021年）。在本期《分子生态学》中，Xu等人（2022年）对多个物种进行了比较转录组研究，以调查WGD对植物适应性以及两个远缘红树林物种内旁系同源物分化的影响（Xu等人，2021年）。他们鉴定出保留的WGD衍生的重复基因对，评估它们对耐盐表型的贡献，并提出了一个通过WGD衍生的重复基因的新功能化实现红树林适应性扩展的模型。他们的结果表明，与最佳中等盐度环境相比，已知耐盐相关基因的新功能化拷贝在盐度波动（即淡水和高盐度）环境中表达上调。这表明在WGD之后，保留的重复基因增加了基因组可塑性，从而能够适应新的和不稳定的环境。
