Mutant

Marchantia polymorpha

Biology

Botany

Gene

Physcomitrella patens

Stamen

Metabolic pathway

Phenylpropanoid

Genetics

Shikimate pathway

Biochemistry

Sepal

Plant evolution

Selaginella

Pollen

Biosynthesis

Genome

Arabidopsis thaliana

Bryophyte

Arabidopsis

The Plant Cell

The plant phenylpropanoid pathway generates a major class of specialized metabolites and precursors of essential extracellular polymers that initially appeared upon plant terrestrialization. Despite its evolutionary significance, little is known about the complexity and function of this major metabolic pathway in extant bryophytes, which represent the non-vascular stage of embryophyte evolution. Here, we report that the HYDROXYCINNAMOYL-CoA:SHIKIMATE HYDROXYCINNAMOYL TRANSFERASE (HCT) gene, which plays a critical function in the phenylpropanoid pathway during seed plant development, is functionally conserved in Physcomitrium patens (Physcomitrella), in the moss lineage of bryophytes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that bona fide HCT function emerged in the progenitor of embryophytes. In vitro enzyme assays, moss phenolic pathway reconstitution in yeast and in planta gene inactivation coupled to targeted metabolic profiling, collectively indicate that P. patens HCT (PpHCT), similar to tracheophyte HCT ortholo...

Function of the HYDROXYCINNAMOYL-CoA:SHIKIMATE HYDROXYCINNAMOYL TRANSFERASE is evolutionarily conserved in embryophytes