[Frontier Leaders] The evolutionary significance of gene and genome duplications

Frontier Leaders Seminar

Title: The evolutionary significance of gene and genome duplications

Speaker: Yves Van de Peer

Affiliation: VIB / Ghent University (Belgium), Bioinformatics & Systems Biology

Abstract:

Genome sequencing has demonstrated that besides frequent small-scale duplications, large-scale duplication events such as whole genome duplications (WGDs) are found on many branches of the evolutionary tree of life. Especially, in the plant lineage, there is evidence for recurrent WGDs, and the ancestor of all angiosperms was in fact most likely a polyploid species. The number of WGDs found in sequenced plant genomes allows us to investigate questions about the roles of WGDs that were hitherto impossible to address. An intriguing observation is that many plant WGDs seem associated with periods of increased environmental stress and/or fluctuations, a trend that is evident for both present-day polyploids and palaeopolyploids formed around the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) extinction 66 Ma. Here, I will revisit the WGDs in plants that mark the K–Pg boundary, and discuss some specific examples of biological innovations and/or diversifications that may be linked to these WGDs. I will review evidence for the processes that could have contributed to increased polyploid establishment at the K–Pg boundary, and discuss the implications on subsequent plant evolution in the Cenozoic.