Walker, CH, Siu-Ting, K, Taylor, A et al. (2 more authors) (2019) Strigolactone synthesis is ancestral in land plants, but canonical strigolactone signalling is a flowering plant innovation. BMC Biology, 17. ARTN: 70. ISSN 1741-7007
Abstract
Background
Strigolactones (SLs) are an important class of carotenoid-derived signalling molecule in plants, which function both as exogenous signals in the rhizosphere and as endogenous plant hormones. In flowering plants, SLs are synthesized by a core pathway of four enzymes and are perceived by the DWARF14 (D14) receptor, leading to degradation of SMAX1-LIKE7 (SMXL7) target proteins in a manner dependent on the SCFMAX2 ubiquitin ligase. The evolutionary history of SLs is poorly understood, and it is not clear whether SL synthesis and signalling are present in all land plant lineages, nor when these traits evolved.
Results
We have utilized recently-generated genomic and transcriptomic sequences from across the land plant clade to resolve the origin of each known component of SL synthesis and signalling. We show that all enzymes in the core SL synthesis pathway originated at or before the base of land plants, consistent with the previously observed distribution of SLs themselves in land plant lineages. We also show that the late-acting enzyme LATERAL BRANCHING OXIDOREDUCTASE (LBO) may be considerably more ancient than previously thought. We perform a detailed phylogenetic analysis of SMXL proteins and show that specific SL target proteins only arose in flowering plants. We also assess diversity and protein structure in the SMXL family, identifying several previously unknown clades.
Conclusions
Overall, our results suggest that SL synthesis is much more ancient than canonical SL signalling, consistent with the idea that SLs first evolved as rhizosphere signals and were only recruited much later as hormonal signals.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s). 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Strigolactones, Strigolactone synthesis, Strigolactone signalling, Phylogenetics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Royal Society RG160845 BBSRC BB/R00398X/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Aug 2019 10:41 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:57 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMC |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12915-019-0689-6 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:149761 |