Evolutionary conservation explains similar genetic mechanism between flowering plants and mosses

An international team has discovered a genetic mechanism that is responsible for the development of stomata - microscopic valves on the surface of plants that facilitate the uptake of carbon dioxide and the release of oxygen and water vapor. The researchers discovered this mechanism, which was previously known in flowering plants like Arabidopsis thaliana, in the moss Physcomitrella patens and found similarities between the two, implying that it already existed in the last common ancestor of mosses and flowering plants. The team was led by the biologists Professor Ralf Reski from the University of Freiburg/Germany and Professor David J. Beerling from the University of Sheffield/UK. The results were published in the journal Nature Plants.

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