Significance of Photosynthetic Characters in the Evolution of Asian Gnetum (Gnetales)

0517573 - BÚ 2020 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Deng, N. - Hou, C. - Liu, C. - Li, M. - Bartish, Igor - Tian, Y. - Chen, W. - Du, C. - Jiang, Z. - Shi, S.
Significance of Photosynthetic Characters in the Evolution of Asian Gnetum (Gnetales).
Frontiers in Plant Science. Roč. 10, Feb 5 (2019), s. 1-13. ISSN 1664-462X. E-ISSN 1664-462X
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : photosynthesis * chloroplast genomes * phylogeny
OECD category: Plant sciences, botany
Impact factor: 4.402, year: 2019
Method of publishing: Open access

We investigated the photosynthetic characters of a Chinese lianoid species, i.e., Gnetum parvifolium, and co-occurring woody angiosperms growing in the wild, as well as seedlings of five Chinese Gnetum species cultivated in a greenhouse. The five Gnetum species had considerably lower values for photosynthesis parameters (net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, intercellular CO2 concentration, and stomatal conductance) than those of other seed plant representatives. Interrelated analyses revealed that the low photosynthetic capacity may be an intrinsic property of Gnetum, and may be associated with its evolutionary history. Comparison of the chloroplast genomes (cpDNAs) of Gnetum with those of other seed plant representatives revealed that 17 coding genes are absent from the cpDNAs of all species of Gnetum. This lack of multiple functional genes from the cpDNAs probably leads to the low photosynthetic rates of Gnetum. Our results provide a new perspective on the evolutionary history of the Gnetales, and on the ecophysiological and genomic attributes of tropical biomes in general. These results could also be useful for the breeding and cultivation of Gnetum.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0302920