Unraveling the Evolution of an Extraordinary Photosynthesis in a Tropical Tree Species

Plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich sugars and oxygen in various ways (photosynthesis). Drought is a major challenge in this process. A research team led by Wolfram Weckwerth at the University of Vienna has now demonstrated how a particularly water-efficient variant of this process (CAM) has evolved in diverse ways within a single tropical tree genus. By analysing the genomes of three species of the genus Clusia, the researchers were able to trace how genome duplication and subsequent genetic rearrangement contribute to the diversity of different CAM traits. The findings have recently been published in Nature Communications.