Bayesian reconstruction of ancestral expression of the LEA gene families reveals propagule-derived desiccation tolerance in resurrection plants.

Desiccation tolerance is a complex trait that is broadly but infrequently present throughout the evolutionary tree of life. Desiccation tolerance has played a significant role in land plant evolution, in both the vegetative and reproductive life history stages. In the land plants, the late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) gene families are involved in both abiotic stress tolerance and the development of reproductive propagules. They are also a major component of vegetative desiccation tolerance. Phylogenies were estimated for four families of LEA genes from Arabidopsis, Physcomitrella, and the desiccation tolerant plants Tortula ruralis, Craterostigma plantagineum, and Xerophyta humilis. Microarray expression data from Arabidopsis and a subset of the Physcomitrella LEAs were used to estimate ancestral expression patterns in the LEA families and to evaluate alternative hypotheses for the origins of vegetative desiccation tolerance in the flowering plants. The results contradict the idea that vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection angiosperms Craterostigma and Xerophyta arose through the co-option of genes exclusively related to stress tolerance, and support the propagule-derived origin of vegetative desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plants.