A serious teacher in botany is A nature Extensive international research published in his columns, which brings together everything we know about angiosperms into the genetic tree of life. 279 researchers from 138 scientific institutions participated in the work, and the results achieved were of great help in clarifying systematics, identifying new species, protecting biodiversity and discovering new therapeutic agents.
Angiosperms, that is, flowering plants, make up 90% of the plant species on Earth and are found practically everywhere. They are of great importance not only as food, but also as raw materials and energy carriers.
Angiosperms appeared about 140 million years ago, and science has always been interested in how they became the planet's dominant plants.
The Tree of Life studied not only currently living plant species, but also relied on specimens and 200 fossils preserved in 163 herbaria around the world. It also reached the past. With the help of these elements, the phylogeny of angiosperms can be charted: the emergence of flowering plants was followed by an explosion in diversity, when 80% of the major groups still known today evolved within a very short period of time. Then evolution slowed down about 100 million years ago, and then an ice age that arrived 40 million years ago gave diversity another boost.
Gardens, shelves, bunkers
For example, the University of Heidelberg was involved in the work by analyzing cruciferous plants. The Brassica family also belongs to this order, and goosegrass is also an important model plant for biologists.
Professor Markus Koch, who is leading the research, heads not only the university's Faculty of Botany, but also the institution's Botanical Garden, where nearly ten thousand species of plants live. The work did not stop there, as Koch and his colleagues also conducted research in the Heidelberg Herbarium, where prepared specimens of half a million plant species from different parts of the world are kept.
For evolutionary research, DNA carrying genetic information can be extracted from dried plants even centuries later
Koch noted.
Gene banks that preserve seeds are more effective in preserving diversity, as the seeds are stored in ideal conditions and germinate even after centuries.
The work of the Heidelberg botanists has been included in the Universal Tree of Life, which contains a genetic map of 9,500 angiosperm species – including 800 species that have been sequenced for the first time. The resulting database contains 1.8 billion letters of genetic code, which is fifteen times larger than the largest previous research.
The research, led by the English Royal Botanic Garden, is a big step towards the main goal, which is to build a large tree of life that combines the genetic description of all 330,000 known angiosperm species.
(nature)
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