Abstract
The Mostly Male theory is the first to use evidence from gene phylogenies, genetics, modern plant morphology and fossils to explain the evolutionary origin of flowers. It proposes that flower organization derives more from the male structures of ancestral gymnosperms than from female structures. The theory arose from a hypothesis-based study. Such studies are the most likely to generate testable evolutionary scenarios, which should be the ultimate goal of evo-devo.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank E. Meyerowitz, in whose laboratory this work began, J. Trager of Huntington Gardens, San Marino, California, and L. Song of the University of California, Fullerton, for Welwitschia materials, and two anonymous reviewers. This work is supported by a National Science Foundation grant.
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DATABASES
MaizeGDB
TAIR
FURTHER INFORMATION
Glossary
- CARPEL
-
A leaf homologue that encloses the ovules and seeds in angiosperms and develops into the fruit.
- CHAROPHYTES
-
The group of green algae that are most closely related to land plants.
- CLADISTICS
-
The approach for analysing organismal or gene diversity that uses explicit characters and character states, which are mapped onto branching diagrams that explicitly mirror possible phylogenetic relationships.
- CLADOGRAM
-
A branching diagram that represents organismal or gene phylogeny.
- EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS
-
The movement to deepen the understanding of Darwinian evolution by incorporating knowledge from different fields, including genetics, population genetics, ecology and so on.
- GYMNOSPERMS
-
Plants that make ovules and seeds but lack flowers. There are four extant groups: conifers, cycads, Ginkgo and Gnetales.
- HETEROTOPY
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An evolutionary process in which a particular structure of an organism forms in new location.
- LONG BRANCH
-
An internode in a phylogenetic tree in which large amounts of character-state change have occured.
- MAD-BOX GENES
-
Eukaryotic genes that have the MADS-box DNA-binding domain.
- MONOPHYLETIC
-
A group of organisms or genes descended from a common ancestor that is a member of the group, which includes all descendents of that common ancestor.
- ORTHOLOGUES
-
Two or more genes (or gene families) that became distinct lineages as the result of a speciation event.
- OUTGROUP
-
A group of organisms or genes that is outside the monophyletic group under consideration.
- PARALOGUES
-
Two or more genes (or gene families) that became distinct lineages owing to a gene-duplication event in an organism.
- PERMINERALIZED
-
A plant fossil resulting from mineral deposition in the cells and tissues of the specimen, which often preserves the cell walls and tissue structure.
- PHYLLARIES
-
Modified leaves that surround the dense flower clusters (heads) of plants in the sunflower family.
- SEPAL
-
The outer-most group of organs in a flower.
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Frohlich, M. An evolutionary scenario for the origin of flowers. Nat Rev Genet 4, 559–566 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1114
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1114
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