Self-organizing maps (SOM) based methodology reveals gene regulatory networks in plant evolution

PROCHETTO S., STEGMAYER G. ; REINHEIMER R.

Conferencia; XIICAB2C - 12th Argentinian Conference in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; 2022

Kranz syndromeis a set of leaf anatomical and functional characteristics of species using C4photosynthesis. The current model for the evolution of C4photosynthesis from a C3 ancestor proposes a series of gradualanatomical changes followed by biochemical adaptation of the C4cycle enzymatic machinery. This transition occurred several times in variousangiosperm lineages and is particularly interesting in grasses, where more than1/3 of the C4 origins occurred. Despite decades of studies, themolecular mechanisms responsible for the evolution of photosynthesis remainunknown. In this work, leaf development traits from closely related C3,C4 and intermediate species (Proto-Kranz, PK) were used togetherwith gene expression data to study gene regulatory networks and identifypotential drivers for the establishment of Kranz anatomy.