Functional recapitulation of transitions in sexual systems by homeosis during the evolution of dioecy in Thalictrum

Frontiers in Plant Science
Nicole C LarueVerónica S Di Stilio

Abstract

Sexual systems are highly variable in flowering plants and an important contributor to floral diversity. The ranunculid genus Thalictrum is especially well-suited to study evolutionary transitions in sexual systems. Homeotic transformation of sexual organs (stamens and carpels) is a plausible mechanism for the transition from hermaphroditic to unisexual flowers in this lineage because flowers of dioecious species develop unisexually from inception. The single-copy gene PISTILLATA (PI) constitutes a likely candidate for rapid switches between stamen and carpel identity. Here, we first characterized the expression pattern of all B class genes in the dioecious species T. dioicum. As expected, all B class orthologs are expressed in stamens from the earliest stages. Certain AP3 lineages were also expressed late in sepal development. We then tested whether orthologs of PI could potentially control sexual system transitions in Thalictrum, by knocking-down their expression in T. dioicum and the hermaphroditic species T. thalictroides. In T. dioicum, we found that ThdPI-1/2 silencing caused stamen primordia to develop into carpels, resulting in male to female flower conversions. In T. thalictroides, we found that ThtPI silencing caused ...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 1, 2016·Frontiers in Plant Science·Rómulo SobralMaria M R Costa
Aug 10, 2016·Developmental Biology·Valerie L SozaVerónica S Di Stilio
Sep 6, 2017·Scientific Reports·Rómulo Sobral, M Manuela R Costa
Apr 10, 2018·Frontiers in Plant Science·Kelsey D GalimbaVerónica S Di Stilio
Feb 9, 2021·Applications in Plant Sciences·Tatiana AriasVerónica S Di Stilio

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
HM488111

Methods Mentioned

BETA
transgenic
gene knockouts
gene knockout
PCR
dissecting

Software Mentioned

Thalictrum
VIGS

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