Remaining mysteries in bryophyte molecular evolution: Mosses, Liverworts and mitochondrial DNA
Final Report Abstract
The project focussed on analyzing three types of non-coding mitochondrial DNA among bryophytes (liverworts, mosses and hornworts), the living representatives for the earliestevolving plant clades some 500 million years ago. The studies addressed the evolution of selected mitochondrial group I and group II introns, which were found universally conserved among the liverworts and mosses at wide taxon samplings. Furthermore, conservation and molecular evolution of two ancient gene arrangements, conserved in charophyte algae, were investigated, the nad5-nad4-nad2 and the trnA-trnT-nad7 cluster. Finally, we found retention of an ancient pseudogene copy of nad7 conserved among jungermanniid and marchantiid liverworts whereas a functional nad7 gene resides in haplomitriid liverworts, confirming their phylogenetic placement and a secondary loss of RNA editing among the marchantiid liverworts.
Publications
- (2007) Different fates of two mitochondrial gene spacers in early land plant evolution. International Journal of Plant Sciences 168, 709-717
Groth-Malonek M, Rein T, Wilson R, Groth H, Heinrichs J, Knoop V
- (2007) Evolution of a pseudogene: Exclusive survival of a functional mitochondrial nad7 gene supports Haplomitrium as the earliest liverwort lineage and proposes a secondary loss of RNA editing in Marchantiidae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 24, 1068-1074
Groth-Malonek M, Wahrmund U, Polsakiewicz M, Knoop V
- (2008) Tracing Plant Mitochondrial DNA Evolution: Rearrangements of the Ancient Mitochondrial Gene Cluster trnA-trnT-nad7 in Liverwort Phylogeny. Journal of Molecular Evolution 66, 621-629
Wahrmund U, Groth-Malonek M, Knoop V
- (2009) Fifty mosses on five trees: comparing phylogenetic information in three types of non-coding mitochondrial DNA and two chloroplast loci. Plant Systematics and Evolution 282, 241-255
Wahrmund U, Rein T, Müller KF, Groth-Malonek M, Knoop V
- (2010) Introducing intron locus cox1i624 for phylogenetic analyses in bryophytes: on the issue of Takakia as sister genus to all other extant mosses. Journal of Molecular Evolution 70, 506-518
Volkmar U, Knoop V
- (2010) Looking for sense in the nonsense: a short review of non-coding organellar DNA elucidating the phylogeny of bryophytes. Tropical Bryology 31, 50-60
Knoop V
- (2010) The phylogeny of mosses - addressing open issues with a new mitochondrial locus: group I intron cobi420. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 54, 417-426
Wahrmund U, Quandt D, Knoop V
