Plants share a common history of successive whole-genome duplication (WGD) events retaining genomic patterns of duplicate gene copies (ohnologs) organized in conserved syntenic blocks. Duplication was often proposed to affect the origin of novel traits during evolution. However, genetic evidence linking WGD to pathway diversification is scarce. We show that WGD and tandem duplication (TD) accel...

The biochemical defense of plants can change during their life-cycle and impact herbivore feeding and plant fitness. The annual species Aethionema arabicum is part of the sister clade to all other Brassicaceae. Hence, it holds a phylogenetically important position for studying crucifer trait evolution. Glucosinolates (GS) are essentially Brassicales-specific metabolites involved in plant defens...

Twenty-two different herbaceous perennials were studied for their reaction to separate inoculations of Meloidogyne arenaria and M. incognita under greenhouse conditions. Perennial taxa that did not develop root-galls following inoculation, and therefore are considered as nonhosts of both nematode species, included species and cultivars of Aethionema, Fragaria, Phlox, and Polygonum. Echinacea, M...

Methylthioalkylmalate synthases (MAMs) encoded by MAM genes are central to the diversification of the glucosinolates, which are important secondary metabolites in Brassicaceae species. However, the evolutionary pathway of MAM genes is poorly understood. We analyzed the phylogenetic and synteny relationships of MAM genes from 13 sequenced Brassicaceae species. Based on these analyses, we propose...