Positive darwinian selection at the imprinted MEDEA locus in plants

Charles Spillane (), Karl J. Schmid, Sylvia Laoueillé-Duprat, Stéphane Pien, Juan-Miguel Escobar-Restrepo, Célia Baroux, Valeria Gagliardini, Damian R. Page, Kenneth H. Wolfe and Ueli Grossniklaus ()
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Charles Spillane: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Karl J. Schmid: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Str. 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany
Sylvia Laoueillé-Duprat: Genetics & Biotechnology Lab, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Stéphane Pien: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Juan-Miguel Escobar-Restrepo: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Célia Baroux: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Valeria Gagliardini: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Damian R. Page: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Kenneth H. Wolfe: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Ueli Grossniklaus: Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland

Nature, 2007, vol. 448, issue 7151, 349-352

Abstract: MEDEA gets selected Gene regulation via genomic imprinting, where the activity of the gene depends on which parent it came from, is found in both mammals and flowering plants, yet it remains unclear how new imprinted loci can arise over evolutionary time. A reconstruction of the evolution of the three 'Enhancer of zeste-like' genes in Arabidopsis now shows that the imprinted MEDEA gene arose from the SWINGER gene in the Brassicaceae about 35 million years ago via whole-genome duplication. So MEDEA, which is essential to seed development, arose relatively late in the evolution of flowering plants. MEDEA became imprinted and acquired its new function as a result of positive darwinian selection, whilst SWINGER retained the ancestral function and is not imprinted.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05984

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