To dry perchance to live: Insights from the genome of the desiccation‐tolerant biocrust moss Syntrichia caninervis

Abstract

With global climate change, water scarcity threatens whole agro/ecosystems. The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis, an extremophile, offers novel insights into surviving desiccation and heat. The sequenced S. caninervis genome consists of 13 chromosomes containing 16 545 protein-coding genes and 2666 unplaced scaffolds. Syntenic relationships within the S. caninervis and Physcomitrella patens genomes indicate the S. caninervis genome has undergone a single whole genome duplication event (compared to two for P. patens) and evidence suggests chromosomal or segmental losses in the evolutionary history of S. caninervis. The genome contains a large sex chromosome composed primarily of repetitive sequences with a large number of Copia and Gypsy elements. Orthogroup analyses revealed an expansion of ELIP genes encoding proteins important in photoprotection. The transcriptomic response to desiccation identified four structural clusters of novel genes. The genomic resources established for this extremophile offer new perspectives for understanding the evolution of desiccation tolerance in plants.

Systems biology of resurrection plants

“…So far, the most detailed analyses of the genomic factors that are common to resurrection plants have focused on late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, due to their diversity and seemingly intrinsic association to the VDT phenotype across organisms, and early light-inducible proteins (ELIPs) [35,36]. Resurrection species are also known to encode species-or lineage-specific genes, many of which may be differentially regulated during desiccation [12,[37][38][39][40] (Table 1). However, in general, high numbers of orphan genes are not uncommon in plants and it seems unlikely that the complex, multigenic VDT trait could have re-evolved independently numerous times via entirely novel proteins [41,42].…”

The Diversity of Plant Sex Chromosomes Highlighted through Advances in Genome Sequencing

“…Expression of FEMALE GAMETOPHYTE MYB (MpFGMYB) results in archegonia development, whereas expression of its cis-acting antisense gene suppresses MpFGMYB resulting in antheridia development and sperm production, though the sperm lack motility [189]. Several other dioecious bryophyte genomes have recently been published or are in progress [71,73,76,190], commencing an era for comparative analyses to uncover sex determination and further insights on sex chromosomes in this predominantly dioecious clade.…”

The diversity of plant sex chromosomes highlighted through advances in genome sequencing

“…Expression of FEMALE GAMETOPHYTE MYB (MpFGMYB) results in archegonia development, whereas expression of its cis-acting antisense gene suppresses MpFGMYB resulting in antheridia development and sperm production, though the sperm lack motility [155]. Several other dioecious bryophyte genomes have recently been published or are in progress [157][158][159][160], commencing an era for comparative analyses to uncover sex determination and further insights on sex chromosomes in this predominantly dioecious clade.…”