The genome of homosporous maidenhair fern sheds light on the euphyllophyte evolution and defences

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Authors

Fang, Yuhan
Qin, Xing
Liao, Qinggang
Du, Ran
Luo, Xizhi
Zhou, Qian
Li, Zhen
Chen, Hengchi
Jin, Wanting
Yuan, Yaning

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Nature Research

Abstract

Euphyllophytes encompass almost all extant plants, including two sister clades, ferns and seed plants. Decoding genomes of ferns is the key to deep insight into the origin of euphyllophytes and the evolution of seed plants. Here we report a chromosome-level genome assembly of Adiantum capillus-veneris L., a model homosporous fern. This fern genome comprises 30 pseudochromosomes with a size of 4.8-gigabase and a contig N50 length of 16.22 Mb. Gene co-expression network analysis uncovered that homospore development in ferns has relatively high genetic similarities with that of the pollen in seed plants. Analysing fern defence response expands understanding of evolution and diversity in endogenous bioactive jasmonates in plants. Moreover, comparing fern genomes with those of other land plants reveals changes in gene families important for the evolutionary novelties within the euphyllophyte clade. These results lay a foundation for studies on fern genome evolution and function, as well as the origin and evolution of euphyllophytes.

Description

Supplementary Information: Supplementary Text, Figs. 1–5 and Tables 1–14.
Supplementary Data 1: Supplementary Data 1–20.
Source Data Fig. 3: Statistical source data for Fig. 3b,c.
Source Data Fig. 4: Statistical source data for Fig. 4d,e.
Source Data Fig. 5: Statistical source data for Fig. 5.
Extended Data Fig. 1 Analyses of whole genome duplication (WGD) events.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Comparison of the genome features of A. capillus-veneris with those of A. filiculoides and S. cucullata.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Time course of the mechanical wound-induced response of JA in Ginkgo biloba.
Extended Data Fig. 4 The maximum-likelihood tree of the BRI1-BRL and EMS1 gene family in land plants.
Extended Data Fig. 5: The island domain of the BRI1-BRL gene family in land plant.

Keywords

Comparative genomics, Plant evolution, Euphyllophytes, Ferns, Maidenhair fern

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Fang, Y., Qin, X., Liao, Q. et al. The genome of homosporous maidenhair fern sheds light on the euphyllophyte evolution and defences. Nature Plants 8, 1024–1037 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01222-x.