Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory, The New York Botanical Garden, and New
York University have created the largest genome-based tree of
life for seed plants to date. Their findings, published today in
the journal PLoS Genetics, plot the evolutionary relationships
of 150 different species of plants based on advanced genome-wide
analysis of gene structure and function. This new approach,
called "functional phylogenomics," allows scientists to
reconstruct the pattern of events that led to the vast number of
plant species and could help identify genes used to improve seed
quality for agriculture. "Ever since Darwin first described the
'abominable mystery' behind the rapid explosion of flowering
plants in the fossil record, evolutionary biologists have been
trying to understand the genetic and genomic basis of the
astounding diversity of plant species," said Rob DeSalle, a
corresponding author on the paper and a curator in the Museum's
Division of Invertebrate Zool