Transcriptomic analysis for morphological innovation during sexual reproduction in swimming sperm plants

Abstract

The key step in sexual reproduction is the encounter of male and female gametes. Bryophytes, as the second largest clade of land plants, possess the flagellated sperm which swim through the continuous water flow and meet with the egg cell eventually, while the seed plants produce the desiccation-resistant pollen to transport the male gametes. During the process of terrestrialization, bryophytes evolved numerous innovative traits adapted to sexual reproduction. In order to investigate the transcription changes in Mplas mutant and Mpgras10 mutant which were involved in the formation of innovative traits during the sexual reproduction of Marchantia polymorpha, the model species in bryophytes, we performed the RNA-seq for receptacle and Mpgras10 mutant, involucre and Mplas mutant. Three biological replicates was included in each sample.