Disruption of the Petal Identity Gene APETALA3-3 Is Highly Correlated with Loss of Petals Within the Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae)
Disruption of the petal identity gene APETALA3-3 is highly correlated with loss of petals within the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) Rui Zhanga,b,1, Chunce Guoa,b,1, Wengen Zhanga,b,1, Peipei Wanga,b, Lin Lia,b, Xiaoshan Duana,b,c, Qinggao Duc, Liang Zhaoc, Hongyan Shana, Scott A. Hodgesd, Elena M. Kramere, Yi Renc,2, and Hongzhi Konga,2 aState Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China; bUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; cCollege of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China; dDepartment of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106; and eDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 Edited by Masatoshi Nei, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and approved February 11, 2013 (received for review November 12, 2012) Absence of petals, or being apetalous, is usually one of the most plants (including the basal-most lineage, Amborella) (13-16), important features that characterizes a group of flowering plants raises the possibility that the genetic program for petal de- at high taxonomic ranks (i.e., family and above). The apetalous velopment was established before the diversification of extant condition, however, appears to be the result of parallel or angiosperms. Then, during evolution, this program has been fi convergent evolution with unknown genetic causes. Here we modi ed in different directions and to varying degrees, giving show that within the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), apetalous rise to the production of a huge variety of petals and petaloid genera in at least seven different lineages were all derived from structures (6, 17).
[Show full text]