A Purdue University-led sequencing of the Selaginella moellendorffii(spikemoss) genome - the first for a non-seed vascular plant - is expected to give scientists a better understanding of how plants of all kinds evolved over the past 500 million years and could open new doors for the identification of new pharmaceuticals.
A team of 100 from 11 different countries was to sequence the genome of Selaginella, a lycophyte. Lycophytes are the oldest living vascular plants, which shed pores to reproduce and have a singular vascular vein through their leaves.
Scientists also discovered that the Selaginella is the only plant that has not experienced a polyploidy event, which means it does not create one or more sets of extra chromosomes. It also is missing genes that most flowers have such as controlling flowering and the stages of changing from a juvenile phase to adult. They are unsure as to how it does what other plants can do with its missing genes.
The genome of the Selaginella would help scientists understand how its genes give the plants its unique characteristics and how other plants are evolutionarily connected to it. There research is to help them understand how plants evolved as well.
This article was interesting to read. I really was never aware of how much we still have to learn about almost everything. Scientists are researching so many things and we discover/learning so many important things that will help us later in life.
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