Developmental flower transcriptomes of the recently evolved cleistogamous species Gastrodia kuroshimensis. Gastrodia kuroshimensis

The diversification of plant reproductive systems has resulted in flowers that do not open at all for successful breeding by self-pollination. Such floral characters are called cleistogamy, which evolved in more than 30 angiosperm lineages. Although its highly repetitive evolution suggests that cleistogamy is a common evolutionary solution to withstand unfavorable conditions for cross-pollination, it has long been unclear how flower development has been modified to derive a common set of cleistogamous traits, such as reduced flower sizes. Here, we analyzed developmental flower transcriptomes of the recently evolved cleistogamous species Gastrodia kuroshimensis.

植物生殖系统的多样化演化，造就了完全不开放、仅能通过自花传粉完成成功繁育的花朵。这类花部性状被称为闭花授粉（cleistogamy），该性状已在超过30个被子植物（angiosperm）演化支中独立演化。尽管其多次独立演化的特征表明，闭花授粉是应对异花传粉不利条件的常见演化策略，但长期以来学界始终未能明确：花发育过程如何被修饰，从而衍生出闭花授粉类群共有的一系列性状，例如花朵尺寸缩减。本研究针对新近演化出闭花授粉性状的物种黑天麻（Gastrodia kuroshimensis）的花发育转录组开展了分析。