News from IAB

The mission of the International Association of Bryologists (IAB), as a society, is to strengthen bryology by encouraging interactions among all persons interested in byophytes.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Marchantia polymorpha genome analyzed


Bowman, JL & 110 authors. 2017. Insights into land plant evolution garnered from the Marchantia polymorpha genome. CELL 171 (2): 287-304.

This new paper presents the first analysis of the Marchantia genome, which is much reduced compared with flowering plants, thus simplifying the process to study the function of transcription and signaling factors.

The Marchantia genome sequencing initiative was led by Dr. John Bowman, Dr. Takayuki Kohchi, Dr. Kimitsune Ishizaki and Dr. Katsuyuki T. Yamato.  Collaboration was officially extended to many other labs around the world in occasion of the Marchantia Workshop in 2014. Analyses of the genome in Marchantia were undertaken to provide knowledge of transcriptional networks that enabled the acquisition of new developmental and physiological traits that led to the colonization of land (Berger et al.2016. Current Biology 26, R181–R191).

Marchantia and related liverworts have been used as a model in biology since the 19th century and were instrumental in the discovery of heterochromatin, plant sex chromosomes, and more. Now, Marchantia is emerging as an experimental model organism for comparative developmental biology, molecular genetics, and functional genomics.

The article about the Marchantia genome is here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.030  and a PDF of the "Preview" is here Delwiche et al. 2017 Marchantia Preview

En excelent note on the paper is here:
DOE/Joint Genome Institute. "Liverwort genes and land plant evolution: Genome analysis of early plant lineage sheds light on how plants learned to thrive on land." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 October 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171005121144.htm>.
 

1 comment:

  1. It would appear that there are four authors to this paper and a large number of others who should properly be listed in acknowledgements for their contribution. Rod Seppelt has pointed out that 110 authors is something of a scientific joke. I suspect that author list will embarrass the bryological community in the long run.

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