Enabling the water-to-land transition

Nat Plants             online article

An oxygen-enriched atmosphere was prerequisite for the evolution of complex animals on land. This was only made possible by the spreading of plants on land masses about 500 million years ago. The moss Physcomitrella patens serves as a promising model for investigating the essential physiological innovations and complex signals which had to evolve for enabling the transition from water to land. We here summarize recent findings regarding these major plant innovations.