title: An evolutionary perspective on the regulation of carpel development.
abstract: The carpel, or female reproductive organ enclosing the ovules, is one of the major evolutionary innovations of the flowering plants. The control of carpel development has been intensively studied in the model eudicot species Arabidopsis thaliana. This review traces the evolutionary history of genes involved in carpel development by surveying orthologous genes in taxa whose lineages separated from that of A. thaliana at different levels of the phylogenetic tree of the seed plants. Some aspects of the control of female reproductive development are conserved between the flowering plants and their sister group, the gymnosperms, indicating the presence of these in the common ancestor of the extant seeds plants, some 300 million years ago. Gene duplications that took place in the pre-angiosperm lineage, before the evolution of the first flowering plants, provided novel gene clades of potential importance for the origin of the carpel. Subsequent to the appearance of the first flowering plants, further gene duplications have led to sub-functionalization events, in which pre-existing reproductive functions were shared between paralogous gene clades. In some cases, fluidity in gene function is evident, leading to similar functions in carpel development being controlled by non-orthologous genes in different taxa. In other cases, gene duplication events have created sequences that evolved novel functions by the process of neo-functionalization, thereby generating biodiversity in carpel and fruit structures.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5667- CNRS - INRA - ENS- Université Lyon 1 - and Institut Fédératif de Recherche 128, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France. Charlie.Scutt@ens-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Charlie P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Scutt
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vinauger-Douard
authors.forename: Chloé
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fourquin
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Finet
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dumas
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development*; D020440:Gene Duplication; D017343:Genes, Plant; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D026161:MADS Domain Proteins