The Genome of a Southern Hemisphere Seagrass Species (Zostera muelleri)

HueyTyng Lee; Agnieszka A Golicz; Philipp E Bayer; Yuannian Jiao; Haibao Tang; Andrew H Paterson; Gaurav Sablok; Rahul R Krishnaraj; Chon-Kit Kenneth Chan; Jacqueline Batley; Gary A Kendrick; Anthony W D Larkum; Peter J Ralph; David Edwards

doi:10.1104/pp.16.00868

The Genome of a Southern Hemisphere Seagrass Species (Zostera muelleri)

Plant Physiol. 2016 Sep;172(1):272-83. doi: 10.1104/pp.16.00868. Epub 2016 Jul 3.

Affiliations

¹ School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia (H.T.L., A.A.G., R.R.K., J.B., D.E.);School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia (H.T.L., P.E.B., C.-K.K.C., J.B., G.A.K., D.E.);State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China (Y.J.);Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 (Y.J., A.H.P.);Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Haixia Institute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China (H.T.); andPlant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia (G.S., A.W.D.L., P.J.R.).
² School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia (H.T.L., A.A.G., R.R.K., J.B., D.E.);School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia (H.T.L., P.E.B., C.-K.K.C., J.B., G.A.K., D.E.);State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China (Y.J.);Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 (Y.J., A.H.P.);Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Haixia Institute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China (H.T.); andPlant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia (G.S., A.W.D.L., P.J.R.) dave.edwards@uwa.edu.au.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Physiological / genetics*
Aquatic Organisms / genetics
Ecosystem*
Gene Duplication
Gene Ontology
Genes, Plant / genetics
Genome, Plant / genetics*
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Oceans and Seas
Plant Proteins / genetics
Sequence Analysis, RNA
Zosteraceae / genetics*

Substances

Plant Proteins