Genetic analysis of Physcomitrella patens identifies ABSCISIC ACID NON-RESPONSIVE (ANR), a regulator of ABA responses unique to basal land plants and required for desiccation tolerance.
Stevenson SR, Kamisugi Y, Trinh CH, Schmutz J, Jenkins JW, Grimwood J, Muchero W, Tuskan GA, Rensing SA, Lang D, Reski R, Melkonian M, Rothfels CJ, Li FW, Larsson A, Wong GK, Edwards TA, Cuming AC.
Plant Cell. 2016;28(6):1310-27.
The plant hormone ABA triggers desiccation tolerance. In the model species Physcomitrella the signalling depends on ABA NON-RESPONSIVE (ANR), a trimodular protein kinase. ANR orthologs are found in early-diverging land plant lineages and aquatic algae, but are absent from more recently diverged vascular plants. Therefore, we propose that ANR genes represent an ancestral adaptation that enabled drought-stress survival of the first terrestrial colonisers, but were lost during land plant evolution.
