Abstract
BackgroundPrevious studies in basal angiosperms have provided insight into the diversity within the angiosperm lineage and helped to polarize analyses of flowering plant evolution. However, there is still not an experimental system for genetic studies among basal angiosperms to facilitate comparative studies and functional investigation. It would be desirable to identify a basal angiosperm experimental system that possesses many of the features found in existing plant model systems (e.g., Arabidopsis and Oryza).ResultsWe have considered all basal angiosperm families for general characteristics important for experimental systems, including availability to the scientific community, growth habit, and membership in a large basal angiosperm group that displays a wide spectrum of phenotypic diversity. Most basal angiosperms are woody or aquatic, thus are not well-suited for large scale cultivation, and were excluded. We further investigated members of Aristolochiaceae for ease of culture, life cycle, genome size, and chromosome number. We demonstrated self-compatibility for Aristolochia elegans and A. fimbriata, and transformation with a GFP reporter construct for Saruma henryi and A. fimbriata. Furthermore, A. fimbriata was easily cultivated with a life cycle of just three months, could be regenerated in a tissue culture system, and had one of the smallest genomes among basal angiosperms. An extensive multi-tissue EST dataset was produced for A. fimbriata that includes over 3.8 million 454 sequence reads.ConclusionsAristolochia fimbriata has numerous features that facilitate genetic studies and is suggested as a potential model system for use with a wide variety of technologies. Emerging genetic and genomic tools for A. fimbriata and closely related species can aid the investigation of floral biology, developmental genetics, biochemical pathways important in plant-insect interactions as well as human health, and various other features present in early angiosperms.
Highlights
Previous studies in basal angiosperms have provided insight into the diversity within the angiosperm lineage and helped to polarize analyses of flowering plant evolution
Emerging genetic and genomic tools for A. fimbriata and closely related species can aid the investigation of floral biology, developmental genetics, biochemical pathways important in plant-insect interactions as well as human health, and various other features present in early angiosperms
We sought to identify a basal angiosperm species having as many important features of a model system as possible to support its potential development into an experimental system in genetics and genomics. We present these essential features in Aristolochia fimbriata - small size at maturity, rapid life cycling, self-compatibilty, small genome size, and transformability - along with relevant findings for other taxa evaluated in our study
Summary
Previous studies in basal angiosperms have provided insight into the diversity within the angiosperm lineage and helped to polarize analyses of flowering plant evolution. It would be desirable to identify a basal angiosperm experimental system that possesses many of the features found in existing plant model systems (e.g., Arabidopsis and Oryza). Our present understanding of genetics, genomics, development, evolution, and physiology of living organisms has benefited greatly from work done in model genetic systems. Models used for developmental and genetic studies must offer rapid development, short generation time, be amenable to large scale cultivation, have small seed size for easy storage of many genotypes, and provide ample tissue for experimentation [1]. Models should support forward and reverse genetics, as is required for hypothesis testing [3], and have a small genome size to facilitate molecular genetics and genomics work, including genome sequencing and assembly [4,5]. For studying the evolution of development, models should have both conserved and unique features in comparison to related species, so that comparative studies can elucidate the mechanisms of phenotypic evolution [6]
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