The Marchantia polymorpha pangenome reveals ancient mechanisms of plant adaptation to the environment
Chloé Beaulieu, Cyril Libourel, Duchesse Lacourt Mbadinga Zamar, Karima El Mahboubi, David J. Hoey, George R. L. Greiff, Jean Keller, Camille Girou, Hélène San Clemente, Issa Diop, Emilie Amblard, Baptiste Castel, Anthony Théron, Stéphane Cauet, Nathalie Rodde, Sabine Zachgo, Wiebke Halpape, Anja Meierhenrich, Bianca Laker, Andrea Bräutigam, David J. Hoey, Edwige Moyroud, Alan Wanke, Alessandra Bonfanti, Stefano Gatti, Alexander Summers, Elisabeth Burmeister, Kathy Grube, Andreea Alexa, Nataliia Kuksa, Lauren M. Gardiner, Martin Balcerowicz, Jemma Salmon, Bryony Yates, Lucie Riglet, Elena Salvi, Péter Szövényi, Shifeng Cheng, Yasuhiro Tanizawa, Simon Aziz, Jim Leebens‐Mack, Jeremy Schmutz, Jenell Webber, Jane Grimwood, Christophe Jacquet, Christophe Dunand, Jessica Nelson, Fabrice Roux, Hervé Philippe, Sebastian Schornack, Maxime Bonhomme, Pierre‐Marc Delaux
Abstract
Plant adaptation to terrestrial life started 450 million years ago and has played a major role in the evolution of life on Earth. The genetic mechanisms allowing this adaptation to a diversity of terrestrial constraints have been mostly studied by focusing on flowering plants. Here, we gathered a collection of 133 accessions of the model bryophyte Marchantia polymorpha and studied its intraspecific diversity using selection signature analyses, a genome-environment association study and a pangenome. We identified adaptive features, such as peroxidases or nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeats (NLRs), also observed in flowering plants, likely inherited from the first land plants. The M. polymorpha pangenome also harbors lineage-specific accessory genes absent from seed plants. We conclude that different land plant lineages still share many elements from the genetic toolkit evolved by their most recent common ancestor to adapt to the terrestrial habitat, refined by lineage-specific polymorphisms and gene family evolution.