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Plant phenomics offers unique opportunities to accelerate our understanding of gene function and plant response to different environments, and may be particularly useful for studying previously uncharacterized genes. One important type of poorly characterized genes is those derived from transposable elements (TEs), which have departed from a mobility-driven lifestyle to attain new adaptive roles for the host (exapted TEs). We used phenomics approaches, coupled with reverse genetics, to analyze T-DNA insertion mutants of both previously reported and novel protein-coding exapted TEs in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We show that mutations in most of these exapted TEs result in phenotypes, particularly when challenged by abiotic stress. We built statistical multi-dimensional phenotypic profiles and compared them to wild-type and known stress responsive mutant lines for each particular stress condition. We found that these exapted TEs may play roles in responses to phosphate limitation, tolerance to high salt concentration, freezing temperatures, and arsenic toxicity. These results not only experimentally validate a large set of putative functional exapted TEs recently discovered through computational analysis, but also uncover additional novel phenotypes for previously well-characterized exapted TEs in A. thaliana.

Despite the central importance of noncoding DNA to gene regulation and evolution, understanding of the extent of selection on plant noncoding DNA remains limited compared to that of other organisms. Here we report sequencing of genomes from three Brassicaceae species (Leavenworthia alabamica, Sisymbrium irio and Aethionema arabicum) and their joint analysis with six previously sequenced crucifer genomes. Conservation across orthologous bases suggests that at least 17% of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome is under selection, with nearly one-quarter of the sequence under selection lying outside of coding regions. Much of this sequence can be localized to approximately 90,000 conserved noncoding sequences (CNSs) that show evidence of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. Population genomics analyses of two crucifer species, A. thaliana and Capsella grandiflora, confirm that most of the identified CNSs are evolving under medium to strong purifying selection. Overall, these CNSs highlight both similarities and several key differences between the regulatory DNA of plants and other species.

The benefits of ever-growing numbers of sequenced eukaryotic genomes will not be fully realized until we learn to decipher vast stretches of noncoding DNA, largely composed of transposable elements. Transposable elements persist through self-replication, but some genes once encoded by transposable elements have, through a process called molecular domestication, evolved new functions that increase fitness. Although they have conferred numerous adaptations, the number of such domesticated transposable element genes remains unknown, so their evolutionary and functional impact cannot be fully assessed. Systematic searches that exploit genomic signatures of natural selection have been employed to identify potential domesticated genes, but their predictions have yet to be experimentally verified. To this end, we investigated a family of domesticated genes called MUSTANG (MUG), identified in a previous bioinformatic search of plant genomes. We show that MUG genes are functional. Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana MUG genes yield phenotypes with severely reduced plant fitness through decreased plant size, delayed flowering, abnormal development of floral organs, and markedly reduced fertility. MUG genes are present in all flowering plants, but not in any non-flowering plant lineages, such as gymnosperms, suggesting that the molecular domestication of MUG may have been an integral part of early angiosperm evolution. This study shows that systematic searches can be successful at identifying functional genetic elements in noncoding regions and demonstrates how to combine systematic searches with reverse genetics in a fruitful way to decipher eukaryotic genomes., Author Summary The genomes of complex organisms are mostly made up not of ordinary genes but of transposable elements. Transposable elements have been called “selfish DNA” because they normally persist by copying themselves, not by helping the organism to survive or reproduce. Yet transposable elements can help organisms to evolve; for instance, transposable element genes sometimes acquire new functions that do benefit the organism. Because they are difficult to distinguish from transposable elements, little is known about these “domesticated genes.” Although studies have attempted to identify them computationally, the predictions have not been verified experimentally. Here, we examine some of the first domesticated genes to be predicted computationally, the MUSTANG family of plant genes. We show that the predictions were correct: MUSTANGs are, like ordinary genes, functional. MUSTANG mutations result in serious defects in how plants grow, flower, and reproduce. Since they are present only in flowering plants, MUSTANG probably originated when flowers first evolved, perhaps taking on a key role. This study is important both because it shows that MUSTANG is critical to plant fitness and because, in the future, a similar approach can be used to find additional domesticated genes and to better understand how transposable elements contribute to evolution.

Cryptobiosis is the state when the metabolic activity of an organism is hardly measurable or is reversibly at a standstill. Many groups of invertebrates have this ability, and can be divided into two types according to the developmental stage in which it occurs; embryonic (eggs) or post-embryonic stages (larvae and adults). The latter must be able to reversibly regulate the physiology and biochemistry of development and cryptobiosis. There are several reviews on cryptobiosis and its regulation, but none on the physiological mechanism of cryptobiosis in chironomids. The present paper reviews the physiological traits of invertebrates entering cryptobiosis in a post-embryonic stage. These unique phenomena, which occur in a post-embryonic stage of three groups of crypto- biotic invertebrates (insects, tardigrades and nematodes) are discussed with particular reference to; 1) the behavioural and physio- logical adaptations of cryptobiotic invertebrates, 2) role of trehalose in cryptobiosis and 3) regulation of cryptobiosis.