Abstract
PLANTS have many characteristics allowing the accumulation of somatic mutations: lack of a germ line, open systems of growth, flexible meristem organizations and the fact that most somatic mutations are not immediately life-threatening.1. A consequence of this is that the meristematic initials of a plant accumulate mutations as it ages2-4. We report here that the mutation rates in the long-lived mangrove are 25 times higher than in the annuals barley and buckwheat. An increase in the frequency of mutant initials is, in effect, an increase in the mutation rate per generation, leading to the prediction that long-lived plants will have higher mutation rates per generation than short-lived plants. Because the mutation rate per generation is the primary determinant of inbreeding depression and the dominant and recessive components of genetic load5-7, plant age and/or life span8 may be a critical and generally unrecognized aspect of the evolutionary equation.
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Klekowski, E., Godfrey, P. Ageing and mutation in plants. Nature 340, 389–391 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/340389a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/340389a0
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