Title

Genome Sequencing of the Endangered Kingdonia uniflora (Circaeasteraceae, Ranunculales) Reveals Potential Mechanisms of Evolutionary Specialization

Abstract

Kingdonia uniflora, an alpine herb, has an extremely narrow distribution and represents a model for studying evolutionary mechanisms of species that have adapted to undisturbed environments for evolutionarily long periods of time. We assembled a 1,004.7-Mb draft genome (encoding 43,301 genes) of K. uniflora and found significant overrepresentation in gene families associated with DNA repair, underrepresentation in gene families associated with stress response, and loss of most plastid ndh genes. During the evolutionary process, the overrepresentation of gene families involved in DNA repair could help asexual K. uniflora reduce the accumulation of deleterious mutations, while reducing genetic diversity, which is important in responding to environment fluctuations. The underrepresentation of gene families related to stress response and functional loss of ndh genes could be due to lack or loss of ability to respond to environmental changes caused by long-term adaptation to a relatively stable ecological environment.

Publisher

Cell Press

Publication Date

5-22-2020

Publication Title

iScience

Department

Biology

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2020.101124

Keywords

Biological sciences, Plant genetics, Plant ecology, Plant evolution

Language

English

Format

text

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