What is it about?
From 330,000+ angiosperms, we found 132 land→water transitions and 86 reversals. Comparing 1,001 genomes shows aquatic transitions repeatedly contract 232 gene families without tested expansions, mainly losing growth/structure, drought–hormone, and microbial-defense.
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Why is it important?
The work provides a clear, repeatable genomic pattern for how plants adapt when moving into water. The stronger the aquatic lifestyle, the more gene families contract, suggesting evolution often “streamlines” rather than builds new functions. It also links these evolutionary shifts to past climate dynamics (e.g., Cenozoic cooling shaping the adaptive landscape). With current global warming potentially expanding aquatic opportunities, this study helps predict how aquatic plants may respond—and why some changes persist while others reverse.
Perspectives
Future research should test which specific contracted gene functions matter most for aquatic traits (e.g., growth, structural support, water- and stress-related pathways, and defense). Functional experiments across habitat gradients (emergent ↔ submerged) can move from correlation to causation. Integrating gene loss with changes in gene regulation, physiology, and microbiomes will improve understanding of the full adaptation process. Finally, extending models to forecast how today’s warming will alter the balance between decline and expansion of aquatic niches can guide conservation and breeding strategies.
Wenwu Wu
Zhejiang A and F University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gradual genomic streamlining and convergent adaptation during terrestrial-to-aquatic transitions in angiosperms, Current Biology, October 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.001.
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