Publication Date:
2007-05-26
Description:
To understand the constraints on biological diversity, we analyzed how selection and development interact to control the evolution of inflorescences, the branching structures that bear flowers. We show that a single developmental model accounts for the restricted range of inflorescence types observed in nature and that this model is supported by molecular genetic studies. The model predicts associations between inflorescence architecture, climate, and life history, which we validated empirically. Paths, or evolutionary wormholes, link different architectures in a multidimensional fitness space, but the rate of evolution along these paths is constrained by genetic and environmental factors, which explains why some evolutionary transitions are rare between closely related plant taxa.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw -- Erasmus, Yvette -- Lane, Brendan -- Harder, Lawrence D -- Coen, Enrico -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2007 Jun 8;316(5830):1452-6. Epub 2007 May 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W. Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17525303" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Arabidopsis/*anatomy & histology/genetics/*growth & development
;
Arabidopsis Proteins/genetics/physiology
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Climate
;
Computer Simulation
;
Flowers/*anatomy & histology/genetics/*growth & development
;
Gene Expression
;
Genes, Plant
;
Mathematics
;
Meristem/growth & development
;
*Models, Biological
;
Selection, Genetic
;
Transcription Factors/genetics/physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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