DNA Methylation Dynamics of Duplicate Genes in Gymnosperms with Large Genomes

Duplicate genes play a crucial role in evolutionary novelty, often exhibiting expression divergences that offer a system to investigate the role of DNA methylation in transcriptional regulation. However, previous studies have primarily focused on angiosperms, particularly crop plants, leaving the methylation patterns in major lineages of land plants with a long evolutionary history still unclear. This study explores the evolution of DNA methylation in duplicate genes across representative gymnosperm species with large genomes (4.13-25.42 Gb) spanning over 300 million years, using genomic, transcriptomic, and high-depth DNA methylomic data.