12/4/2019 Multimedia Gallery - Pore in Tissue of Hornwort | NSF - National Science Foundation

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August 22, 2005

Pore in
Tissue of

Download this image. (media/images/lifeform5_h.tiff)

Hornwort
A pore in the tissue of the hornwort Phaeoceros laevis. This hornwort is
one of many plant species scientists are studying as part of the National
Science Foundation-supported "Tree of Life" initiative. The goal of the
initiative is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of early land plants
and to answer such questions as how multicellular aquatic plants
evolved, what plants rst colonized land, how are the early plant
lineages related to each other, and what genetic, cellular and structural
changes did they undergo. [This research was supported by a grant
from the Assembling Tree of Life initiative and from three systematic
biology grants.] [Image 3 of 8 related images. See Image 4
(mmg_disp.cfm?med_id=51942&from=mmg).]

More about this Image

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded some $17 million to
seven research teams to begin a massive project in biodiversity--
https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=51941&from= 1/3
12/4/2019 Multimedia Gallery - Pore in Tissue of Hornwort | NSF - National Science Foundation

assembling a complete "Tree of Life," a map of the evolutionary history

of all Earth's species, past and present.

Karen S. Renzaglia of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC)

received an NSF grant to study green plant evolution. Working in
collaboration with other scientists at SIUC and with several principal
investigators from other institutions, Renzaglia is reconstructing in
detail, the family tree of the plant kingdom. The "genealogical" study is
focusing on plant groups with an ancient heritage, such as algae,
mosses and ferns, where evolutionary relationships are unclear and
where the most dramatic biological changes must have occured.

Renzaglia studies cell-level changes in early land plants. The earliest

plants to make the transition to land are still the smallest--mosses,
liverworts and hornworts. Called bryophytes, these plants are found on
every continent but Antarctica. They hug the ground, absorbing water
and nutrients directly through their cells and skinny threads called
rhizoids (an early form of a root) anchor them to the soil. It wasn't until
plants evolved true root systems and veins to carry water and nutrients-
-like the giant tree ferns and rush-like horsetails and club mosses, called
pteridophytes (Greek for "fern plants")--that they were able to grow
larger. Not much more is known for certain about early plant evolution.

In a separate project also supported by NSF, Renzaglia and biologist Joel

Du of the University of Akron are piecing together the family tree of
the world's 150 or so kinds of hornworts. Renzaglia says there is so little
information about hornworts at this time that it's hard to know what
de nes a species or genus. She believes that hornworts were the
earliest land plant that still exists today. Renzaglia and other teams of
researchers will conduct in-depth analysis of about 50 species of plants
that they believe represent major lineages among green algae,
bryophytes and pteridophytes.

To understand all the developmental stages of these plants, Renzaglia

and her students are examining spores and spore capsules, egg and
sperm cells, embryos, and mature plants; documenting dozens of
characteristics; photographing specimens; comparing and compiling
details previously reported about the species in the scienti c literature;
and archiving everything they nd. The research is long and drawn out.
For example, data collected on spores includes their shape and color,
their "ornamentation" (whorls and ridges), their internal structure and
development, and what types of molecules, such as proteins and
sugars, are stored inside. The team will develop new methods of
organizing, combining and analyzing diverse data sets to draw
conclusions about evolutionary history.

Obtaining the details of plant evolution will involve a combination of

fossil, genetic and morphological evidence, but Renzaglia thinks it has
the potential to uncover all kinds of new information and "open up a
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12/4/2019 Multimedia Gallery - Pore in Tissue of Hornwort | NSF - National Science Foundation

world nobody's known about." (Year of image: 2002)

SORRY: THIS IMAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE IN HIGH-RESOLUTION FORMAT

Credit: Photo by Karen Renzaglia; courtesy Dan Nickrent

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