2016/07/03 by HueyTyng Lee, Agnieszka A. Golicz, Philipp E. Bayer +11 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Marine and coastal plant biology #Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies #Echinoderm biology and ecology #Zostera marina #Biology #Seagrass #Adaptation (eye) #Ecology #Ecosystem
paper · doi:10.1104/pp.16.00868
openalex publication_date 2016/07/03 · openalex created_date 2016/07/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Seagrasses are marine angiosperms that evolved from land plants but returned to the sea around 140 million years ago during the early evolution of monocotyledonous plants. They successfully adapted to abiotic stresses associated with growth in the marine environment, and today, seagrasses are distributed in coastal waters worldwide. Seagrass meadows are an important oceanic carbon sink and provide food and breeding grounds for diverse marine species. Here, we report the assembly and characterization of the Zostera muelleri genome, a southern hemisphere temperate species. Multiple genes were lost or modified in Z. muelleri compared with terrestrial or floating aquatic plants that are associated with their adaptation to life in the ocean. These include genes for hormone biosynthesis and signaling and cell wall catabolism. There is evidence of whole-genome duplication in Z. muelleri; however, an ancient pan-commelinid duplication event is absent, highlighting the early divergence of this species from the main monocot lineages.