剑桥大学Elliot M. Meyerowitz课题组取得一项新突破。他们的研究认为进化转录组学揭示了开花植物基因表达模式的快速变化。2026年1月6日出版的《细胞》杂志发表了这项成果。

在这项研究中，研究小组分析了跨越1.6亿年进化的7种被子植物的发育转录组。课题组研究人员证明了被子植物蛋白编码基因的表达模式分化迅速。研究发现，参与内源性和环境刺激反应、促进广泛的生态耐受性、适应性进化和物种形成的基因的表达变化率尤其高。这项研究强调了生态和进化动力学是如何高度相关的，表明表达分化率不同于先前对哺乳动物的描述，并为进行转录组进化的跨界比较研究提供了全面的阻力。

据介绍，被子植物（开花植物）的进化史以高度加速的多样化为特征。尽管已经提出了许多假说来解释被子植物的生态成功和快速崛起，但其物种形成的分子机制仅被部分理解。

附：英文原文

Title: Evolutionary transcriptomics unveils rapid changes of gene expression patterns in flowering plants

Author: Christoph Schuster, Alexander Gabel, Hajk-Georg Drost, Ivo Grosse, Ottoline Leyser, Elliot M. Meyerowitz

Issue&Volume: 2026-01-06

Abstract: The evolutionary history of angiosperms (flowering plants) is characterized by a highly accelerated rate of diversification. Although a number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the ecological success and rapid rise of angiosperms, the molecular mechanisms underlying their speciation are only partially understood. In this study, we analyzed the developmental transcriptomes of seven angiosperm species spanning 160 million years of evolution. We demonstrate that angiosperm protein-coding gene expression patterns diverged rapidly. Particularly high rates of expression changes were found for genes that are involved in the response to endogenous and environmental stimuli, promoting broad ecological tolerances, adaptive evolution, and speciation. This study highlights how ecological and evolutionary dynamics are highly interrelated, shows that the rates of expression divergence differ from those previously described for mammals, and provides a comprehensive resource to perform cross-kingdom comparative studies of transcriptome evolution.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.015

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)01428-X