PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Steven Kelly
AU  - Sarah Covshoff
AU  - Samart Wanchana
AU  - Vivek Thakur
AU  - W. Paul Quick
AU  - Yu Wang
AU  - Martha Ludwig
AU  - Richard Bruskiewich
AU  - Alisdair R. Fernie
AU  - Rowan F. Sage
AU  - Zhijian Tian
AU  - Zixian Yan
AU  - Jun Wang
AU  - Yong Zhang
AU  - Xin-Guang Zhu
AU  - Gane Ka-Shu Wong
AU  - Julian M. Hibberd
TI  - Wide sampling of natural diversity identifies novel molecular signatures of C<sub>4</sub> photosynthesis
AID  - 10.1101/163097
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 163097
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/13/163097.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/13/163097.full
AB  - Much of biology is associated with convergent traits, and it is challenging to determine the extent to which underlying molecular mechanisms are shared across phylogeny. By analyzing plants representing eighteen independent origins of C4 photosynthesis, we quantified the extent to which this convergent trait utilises identical molecular mechanisms. We demonstrate that biochemical changes that characterise C4 species are recovered by this process, and expand the paradigm by four metabolic pathways not previously associated with C4 photosynthesis. Furthermore, we show that expression of many genes that distinguish C3 and C4 species respond to low CO2, providing molecular evidence that reduction in atmospheric CO2 was a driver for C4 evolution. Thus the origin and architecture of complex traits can be derived from transcriptome comparisons across natural diversity.