Study finds novel gene evolution in the decaploid pitcher plant Nepenthes gracilis
Originally published by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, on November 24, 2023 Evolution of novel traits in Nepenthes. a, N. gracilis plant with carnivorous pitcher leaves. b, The phylogenetic position of Nepenthes. Divergence time with a 95% CI is shown for the ML tree topology reconstructed using 1,614 single-copy protein sequences from 20 species. Bootstrap supports and posterior probability values for the position of Nepenthes are shown as follows: nucleotide ML/protein ML/nucleotide CO/protein CO. Character evolution was parsimoniously mapped to branches, while symbols do not indicate point estimates of evolutionary origin times. Note that carnivory was secondarily lost in Ancistrocladus . Caricatures of leaves of plants belonging to carnivorous clades are shown to the right. CI, confidence interval; T., Triassic; Ju., Jurassic; Cr., Cretaceous; Pa., Paleogene; N., Neogene; Q., Quaternary. Credit: Nature Plants (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-023-01562-2 In a recent study,