大豆属不同进化类型叶的结构演化研究

在植物系统发育的过程中，大豆叶子的起源为进化型，而从个体上看大豆属植物叶起源均为外起源，即起源于大豆茎端分生组织某一部位的叶原基，叶原基首先进行切向分裂，然后进行各个方向的分裂形成幼叶，由于每种大豆叶的分生组织活动都是有限的，导致了4种大豆叶片大小的差异，野生大豆叶面积最小，半野生大豆叶、半栽培大豆叶、栽培大豆叶面积递次增大，野生大豆叶面积小，其光合作用和蒸腾作用效率低，代表了其较原始的演化程度；而栽培大豆叶面积大，叶柄也较野生大豆叶柄长，表现出很强的光合作用的功能，代表了较高级的叶结构演化水平。     

陆生植物的起源和维管植物的早期演化

陆生植物的起源和演化是地球生命中的重大事件,它影响到地球上所有的其他生命和全球环境。在过去的20年中,从中奥陶世历经整个志留纪至早泥盆世的岩层中,化石植物(微化石和大化石)的新发现改变了人们对陆生植物起源的认识,并且为陆生植物和维管植物早期演化分异提供了基部类群分化的时间框架。据此人们识别出地史中的3个陆生植物的时代：始胚植物时代、始维管植物时代和真维管植物时代。另一方面,分子系统的研究使人们深入认识了植物的系统发育和早期分支。通过比较形态学研究和基因序列的共同努力,建立了植物系统发育树。总结了最近的进展和新的认识,评价了基于分支分析的系统发育研究。     

龙潭楔叶的再研究——兼论华南晚泥盆世楔叶目的演化

基于安徽省巢湖市狮子口剖面上泥盆统（法门阶）五通组的标本,对龙潭楔叶Sphenophyllum lungtanense Gothan et Sze的叶形和脉式等重要特征取得了新认识。华南晚泥盆世楔叶目的起源和演化分异模式不同于劳俄大陆的同类植物,它们兼有原始和进化的营养器官（枝状、线状或片状叶）和生殖器官（缺少或具有孢子叶）,显示出较高的形态多样性和镶嵌演化。     

龙潭楔叶的再研究——兼论华南晚泥盆世楔叶目的演化

基于安徽省巢湖市狮子口剖面上泥盆统(法门阶)五通组的标本,对龙潭楔叶Sphenophyllum lungtanense Gothan et Sze的叶形和脉式等重要特征取得了新认识。华南晚泥盆世楔叶目的起源和演化分异模式不同于劳俄大陆的同类植物,它们兼有原始和进化的营养器官(枝状、线状或片状叶)和生殖器官(缺少或具有孢子叶),显示出较高的形态多样性和镶嵌演化。     

陕南早中侏罗世勉县群植物组合面貌

勉县群为陕南勉县至紫阳一带早中侏罗世陆相含煤沉积；自下而上分为三个组，即洪水沟组、沔水组、堰河组．该群含有丰富的植物化石，该植物群是典型的南方型Ｐｔｉｌｏｐｈｙｌｌｕｍ—Ｃｏｎｉｏｐｔｅｒｉｓ植物群。根据沉积特征及植物化石分布规律分析，勉县群三个组的形成时代依次为：早侏罗世、早中侏罗世、中侏罗世。有趣的是，在沔水组中下部发现了有花植物中华木兰（Ｍａｇｎｏｌｉａｍｉｏｃｅｎｉｌａ），为研究被子植物早期起源历史提供了一份新的材料。     

论“说学”艺术的起源

说学的起源远远早于文学，在文字出现以前的漫长时间里，人们只能借助口头语言和形体语言来表达和传播，所谓“口头文学”其实就是说学。     

追寻人类的足迹

自从达尔文提出进化论以来，人们对于自身的起源的研究就不曾间断过。近一个半世纪过去了，学术界对于人类起源与演化过程已经构建了一个粗略的轮廓。近年来，分子生物学方法的兴起加速了人类起源与演化的研究，但化石仍然是研究人类起源与演化最直接的证据。[编者按]     

寒武纪腕足动物起源及冠轮动物谱系演化

寒武纪大爆发是地球动物门类爆发性出现和地球生态系统演化发生转折的重要时期。自此，地球海洋生态系统从前寒武纪菌藻类支撑的2极食物链生态系统转变为动物消费驱动的3极食物链生态系统，成为地球隐生宙和显生宙的分水岭，是研究和探索显生宙地球宜居性演化的关键。寒武纪大爆发以地球海洋突然大量、快速出现的两侧动物和矿化壳体为标志。这些帽状、管状的壳体化石，除了少量蜕皮类，大多数属于不明亲缘关系的冠轮动物。因此，寒武纪早期冠轮动物的起源与谱系演化是古生物学乃至现代生物学颇具争议的热门研究课题之一。腕足动物是地质历史上化石保存最为丰富、地史延限最长的冠轮动物重要分支类群，是寒武纪演化动物群的核心代表，其研究对于了解古生态学、古地理学和地球生物宏演化具有十分重要的意义。目前对于腕足动物起源存在多种假说，主要包括帚虫状祖先起源、蛤氏虫起源、托莫特壳起源和胶结质椎管状触手冠动物起源等假说。该文以寒武纪腕足动物起源为主线，以化石系统实证或证伪国内外腕足动物起源假说为目的，全面总结了寒武纪腕足动物化石生物学的重要发现和认识，探讨了地球已知最早的内肛动物、笼头虫和分节的威瓦西虫，以及胶结质椎管状腕足动物玉玕囊形贝发现...     

紫萁科植物——漫长演化历史的见证者

紫萁科是真蕨类植物最古老的代表类群之一,最早的化石记录可以追溯到3亿年前.紫萁科的演化是怎样一个漫长而精彩的故事? 地球上生长着丰富多彩的绿色植物,其中真蕨类的历史较裸子植物和被子植物更为悠久,并见证了许多重要植物的演化事件,诸如晚古生代的石松植物崛起、早中生代的裸子植物辐射以及白垩纪以来被子植物的起源和演化等.其中,作为真蕨植物最古老的代表类群之一,紫萁科被认为是地球历史和生命演化历程的重要见证者.     

尾叶香茶菜二萜成份研究

从唇形和尾叶香茶菜叶子的甲醇提取物中，分离提取了４个对映－贝壳杉烯型二萜，并利用核磁共振氢谱和碳谱，以及质谱、红外光谱和紫外光谱等方法，对以上各化合物进行了结构鉴定。化合物１在该植物的文献中未见报道。     

Independent recruitment of a conserved developmental mechanism during leaf evolution

Vascular plants evolved in the Middle to Late Silurian period, about 420 million years ago. The fossil record indicates that these primitive plants had branched stems with sporangia but no leaves. Leaf-like lateral outgrowths subsequently evolved on at least two independent occasions. In extant plants, these events are represented by microphyllous leaves in lycophytes (clubmosses, spikemosses and quillworts) and megaphyllous leaves in euphyllophytes (ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms). Our current understanding of how leaves develop is restricted to processes that operate during megaphyll formation. Because microphylls and megaphylls evolved independently, different mechanisms might be required for leaf formation. Here we show that this is not so. Gene expression data from a microphyllous lycophyte, phylogenetic analyses, and a cross-species complementation experiment all show that a common developmental mechanism can underpin both microphyll and megaphyll formation. We propose that this mechanism might have operated originally in the context of primitive plant apices to facilitate bifurcation. Recruitment of this pathway to form leaves occurred independently and in parallel in different plant lineages.     

Evolution of leaf-form in land plants linked to atmospheric CO2 decline in the Late Palaeozoic era

The widespread appearance of megaphyll leaves, with their branched veins and planate form, did not occur until the close of the Devonian period at about 360 Myr ago. This happened about 40 Myr after simple leafless vascular plants first colonized the land in the Late Silurian/Early Devonian, but the reason for the slow emergence of this common feature of present-day plants is presently unresolved. Here we show, in a series of quantitative analyses using fossil leaf characters and biophysical principles, that the delay was causally linked with a 90% drop in atmospheric pCO2 during the Late Palaeozoic era. In contrast to simulations for a typical Early Devonian land plant, possessing few stomata on leafless stems, those for a planate leaf with the same stomatal characteristics indicate that it would have suffered lethal overheating, because of greater interception of solar energy and low transpiration. When planate leaves first appeared in the Late Devonian and subsequently diversified in the Carboniferous period, they possessed substantially higher stomatal densities. This observation is consistent with the effects of the pCO2 on stomatal development and suggests that the evolution of planate leaves could only have occurred after an increase in stomatal density, allowing higher transpiration rates that were sufficient to maintain cool and viable leaf temperatures.     

杉木老龄林与原生杂木林群落外貌特征比较分析

通过对 3600m^2标准地调查，研究福建南平溪后安曹下76年生杉木丰产林取代杂木林后群落外貌特征的变化。结果表明：老龄杉木群落蕨类草本植物、地下芽植物、大型叶植物、草叶植物、非全缘叶植物种类数量比例大于杂木林，而乔木、灌木、大高芽植物、小型叶植物、革叶和厚革叶植物、全缘叶植物种类数量比例小于杂木林。     

Earliest record of megaphylls and leafy structures, and their initial diversification

Evolutionary changes in the structure of leaves have had far-reaching effects on the anatomy and physiology of vascular plants, resulting in morphological diversity and species expansion. People have long been interested in the question of the nature of the morphology of early leaves and how they were attained. At least five lineages of euphyllophytes can be recognized among the Early Devonian fossil plants (Pragian age, ca. 410 Ma ago) of South China. Their different leaf precursors or "branch-leaf complexes" are believed to foreshadow true megaphylls with different venation patterns and configurations, indicating that multiple origins of megaphylls had occurred by the Early Devonian, much earlier than has previously been recognized. In addition to megaphylls in euphyllophytes, the laminate leaf-like appendages (sporophylls or bracts) occurred independently in several distantly related Early Devonian plant lineages, probably as a response to ecological factors such as high atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. This is a typical example of convergent evolution in early plants.     

The evolutionary origin of complex features

A long-standing challenge to evolutionary theory has been whether it can explain the origin of complex organismal features. We examined this issue using digital organisms--computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. Populations of digital organisms often evolved the ability to perform complex logic functions requiring the coordinated execution of many genomic instructions. Complex functions evolved by building on simpler functions that had evolved earlier, provided that these were also selectively favoured. However, no particular intermediate stage was essential for evolving complex functions. The first genotypes able to perform complex functions differed from their non-performing parents by only one or two mutations, but differed from the ancestor by many mutations that were also crucial to the new functions. In some cases, mutations that were deleterious when they appeared served as stepping-stones in the evolution of complex features. These findings show how complex functions can originate by random mutation and natural selection.     

Three-dimensional limb joint mobility in the early tetrapod Ichthyostega

The origin of tetrapods and the transition from swimming to walking was a pivotal step in the evolution and diversification of terrestrial vertebrates. During this time, modifications of the limbs—particularly the specialization of joints and the structures that guide their motions—fundamentally changed the ways in which early tetrapods could move. Nonetheless, little is known about the functional consequences of limb anatomy in early tetrapods and how that anatomy influenced locomotion capabilities at this very critical stage in vertebrate evolution. Here we present a three-dimensional reconstruction of the iconic Devonian tetrapod Ichthyostega and a quantitative and comparative analysis of limb mobility in this early tetrapod. We show that Ichthyostega could not have employed typical tetrapod locomotory behaviours, such as lateral sequence walking. In particular, it lacked the necessary rotary motions in its limbs to push the body off the ground and move the limbs in an alternating sequence. Given that long-axis rotation was present in the fins of tetrapodomorph fishes, it seems that either early tetrapods evolved through an initial stage of restricted shoulder and hip joint mobility or that Ichthyostega was unique in this respect. We conclude that early tetrapods with the skeletal morphology and limb mobility of Ichthyostega were unlikely to have made some of the recently described Middle Devonian trackways.     

Positive darwinian selection at the imprinted MEDEA locus in plants

In mammals and seed plants, a subset of genes is regulated by genomic imprinting where an allele's activity depends on its parental origin. The parental conflict theory suggests that genomic imprinting evolved after the emergence of an embryo-nourishing tissue (placenta and endosperm), resulting in an intragenomic parental conflict over the allocation of nutrients from mother to offspring. It was predicted that imprinted genes, which arose through antagonistic co-evolution driven by a parental conflict, should be subject to positive darwinian selection. Here we show that the imprinted plant gene MEDEA (MEA), which is essential for seed development, originated during a whole-genome duplication 35 to 85 million years ago. After duplication, MEA underwent positive darwinian selection consistent with neo-functionalization and the parental conflict theory. MEA continues to evolve rapidly in the out-crossing species Arabidopsis lyrata but not in the self-fertilizing species Arabidopsis thaliana, where parental conflicts are reduced. The paralogue of MEA, SWINGER (SWN; also called EZA1), is not imprinted and evolved under strong purifying selection because it probably retained the ancestral function of the common precursor gene. The evolution of MEA suggests a late origin of genomic imprinting within the Brassicaceae, whereas imprinting is thought to have originated early within the mammalian lineage.