Genomes of Poaceae relatives reveal key metabolic innovations preceding the evolution of grasses
The grass family (Poaceae) has immense economic and ecological importance and exhibits distinctive metabolic traits, including dual starch and lignin biosynthetic pathways. We sequenced the genomes of Pharus , Joinvillea , Ecdeiocolea , and Typha species to investigate when and how these metabolic innovations evolved relative to the origin of the grass family. The rho whole-genome duplication (ρWGD) within the lineage that led to the last common ancestor of all grasses contributed to the gene family expansions underlying cytosolic starch biosynthesis, whereas an earlier tandem duplication of phenylalanine ammonia lyase ( PAL ) gave rise to phenylalanine/tyrosine ammonia lyase ( PTAL ), which is responsible for the dual lignin biosynthesis. Integrated biochemical, functional, and structural studies, guided by phylogenomic analyses, further revealed the molecular basis of key metabolic innovations predating the evolution of grasses.
Authors
- Jorge El‐Azaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7452-1018)
- Joseph M. Jez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7911-9108)
- Michael R. McKain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9091-306X)
- Melissa Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2015-8844)
- Kerrie Barry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8999-6785)
- David H. Lorence (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6735-9531)
- David Goodstein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6287-2697)
- Jerry Jenkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7943-3997)
- Sontosh K. Deb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1539-7680)
- Hiroshi Maéda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0246-694X)
- Yuri Takeda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5833-8459)
- Jim Leebens‐Mack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4811-2231)
- Jane Grimwood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8356-8325)
- Jeremy Schmutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8062-9172)
- Marcos V. V. de Oliveira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9330-2782)
- Shengqiang Shu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4336-8994)
- Matthew D. Barrett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2926-4291)
- Bethany M. Moore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2104-7292)
- Christopher Plott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-5174)
- Samuel Holden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2885-1635)
- Lori Beth Boston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1872-2127)
- Matthew Moscou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2098-6818)
- Wynne Havranek
- Jae S. Morris
- Carly Sanders (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8079-2568)
Institutions
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Yamagata University (JP)
- National Tropical Botanical Garden (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- University of Alabama (US)
- Joint Genome Institute (US)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Norwich Research Park (GB)
- Sainsbury Laboratory (GB)
- Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AU)
- HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (US)
- Cereal Disease Laboratory (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2026-08-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv0443
- Primary Topic
- Plant Gene Expression Analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers