What is it about?
The dynamics of the evolution of fern genomes has not been studied until now. Here, we show that the genomes of royal ferns are not frozen in time. However, they evolve rather slowly. The slow rate of change in the genome size coincide with the conservation of chromosome number, reduced mutation rates, long generation times, and static evolution of morphological disparity. The royal ferns are therefore a key example to study the correlation of these aspects in the phylogenesis of an old fern lineage.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
In the post-genomic age, access of genomic evidence will allow us to uncover key aspects of the evolution of plant life. However, these studies require well-developed hypothesis of which one is provided in this study.
Perspectives
This study opened a completely new perspective on the evolution of ancient ferns in modern terrestrial environments.
Dr Harald Schneider
Natural History Museum, London, UK
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Are the genomes of royal ferns really frozen in time? Evidence for coinciding genome stability and limited evolvability in the royal ferns, New Phytologist, February 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/nph.13330.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
