Water Lily Genome Sheds Light on Early Evolution of Flowering Plants

An international team of researchers has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genome of the blue-petal water lily (Nymphaea colorata), a plant species that is valued for the aesthetically attractive blue color of petals. The findings, published in the journal Nature, provide insights into the early evolution of the flowering plants (angiosperms) on key innovations such as flower development and floral scent and color.

The blue-petal water lily (Nymphaea colorata) in the Botanischen Garten, Berlin, Germany. Image credit: Rüdiger Kratz / CC BY-SA 3.0.

The blue-petal water lily (Nymphaea colorata) in the Botanischen Garten, Berlin, Germany. Image credit: Rüdiger Kratz / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Water lilies belong to the flowering plants and have a global distribution that includes cold regions (northern China and northern Canada).

Many species, particularly from the genus Nymphaea, have large and showy flowers. Their aesthetic beauty has captivated notable artists such as the French impressionist Claude Monet.

The water lily lineage descended from one of the early divergences among the flowering plants, before the rise of a core group of angiosperms called mesangiosperms.

Thus, water lilies offer a unique window into the early evolution of the flowering plants, particularly that of the flower.

“The genome of Nymphaea colorata provides an opportunity to resolve the relationships between Amborellales (an order of flowering shrubs that includes only one species, Amborella trichopoda), Nymphaeales and all other extant angiosperms,” said lead author Dr. Liangsheng Zhang of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and colleagues.

In the study, the researchers sequenced the Nymphaea colorata DNA using the PacBio RSII single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology.

They found that this plant has a relatively small genome size — about 409 million base-pairs long.

They also identified 31,580 protein-coding genes and predicted repetitive elements with a collective length of 160.4 million base-pairs, accounting for 39.2% of the genome.

Their analysis shows that Nymphaeales and Amborellales are successive sister lineages to all other extant flowering plants. It also unveils evidence for a whole-genome duplication event in Nymphaea colorata between 147 and 185 million years ago.

Additionally, the team analyzed the genetic basis of floral scent biosynthesis in water lilies.

“Floral scent for attracting pollinators is critical for both the diversity of plants and plant-based agricultural production,” said co-author Professor Feng Chen, a researcher at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

“The flowers of Amborella trichopoda are scentless. It is therefore intriguing to understand when and how flowering plants evolved scent.”

According to the team, among the genes retained from the Nymphaeales’ whole-genome duplication event are homologues of genes that regulate flowering transition and flower development in all flowering plants.

“Water lilies have evolved attractive floral scents and colors, which are features shared with core angiosperms,” Professor Chen said.

“The chemical compounds and biosynthetic genes we analyzed — those that produce the floral scents — suggest that the scents of water lilies have evolved in parallel to those in core angiosperms.”

“Because of its unique phylogenetic position, the innovations in scent biosynthesis and other traits revealed from the Nymphaea colorata genome shed light on the early evolution of all angiosperms.”

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L. Zhang et al. The water lily genome and the early evolution of flowering plants. Nature, published online December 18, 2019; doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1852-5

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