Abstract
The genus Capsella comprises three well-defined species, C. grandiflora, C. rubella and C. bursa-pastoris (the widely known Shepherd’s purse). Together with some intraspecific varieties, however, these species show remarkable differences in ploidy level, breeding systems, habitat range, and some morphological features such as leaf structure and floral architecture. Similar differences are also found in many other plant groups, thus understanding their genetic bases is of great interest for developmental and evolutionary biologists alike. Since Capsella is closely related to the major model plant Arabidopsis thaliana numerous molecular genetic tools are available for respective studies, and for one species (C. rubella) even sequencing of the whole genome is currently being pursued. Therefore, we currently see a renaissance of research interest in Capsella addressing some key issues of developmental and evolutionary biology such as speciation, adaptation, the developmental genetic basis of plant form, and whether evolution can proceed in a saltational way, that is generate profound changes within just a few or even only one generation of organisms. Some highlights of recent investigations are briefly presented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsAbbreviations
- A.:
-
Arabidopsis
- C.:
-
Capsella
- SC:
-
Self-compatibility
- SCR:
-
S-locus cysteine-rich protein
- SI:
-
Self-incompatibility
- SRK:
-
S-locus receptor kinase
References
Acarkan A, Roßberg M, Koch M, Schmidt R (2000) Comparative genome analysis reveals extensive conservation of genome organisation for Arabidopsis thaliana and Capsella rubella. Plant J 23:55–62
Barkoulas M, Hay A, Kougioumoutzi E, Tsiantis M (2008) A developmental framework for dissected leaf formation in the Arabidopsis relative Cardamine hirsuta. Nat Genet 40:1136–1141
Barrett SCH (2002) The evolution of plant sexual diversity. Nat Rev Genet 3:274–284
Bartholmes C, Nutt P, Theißen G (2008) Germline transformation of Shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) by the floral dip method as a tool for evolutionary and developmental biology. Gene 409:11–19
Bateman RM, DiMichele WA (2002) Generating and filtering major phenotypic novelties: neoGoldschmidtian saltation revisited. In: Cronk QCB, Bateman RM, Hawkins JA (eds) Developmental genetics and plant evolution, pp. 109–159. Taylor & Francis, London
Boivin K, Acarkan A, Mbulu RS, Clarenz O, Schmidt R (2004) The Arabidopsis genome sequence as a tool for genome analysis in Brassicaceae. a comparison of the Arabidopsis and Capsella rubella genomes. Plant Physiol 135:735–744
Bowman JL (2006) Molecules and morphology: comparative developmental genetics of the Brassicaceae. Plant Syst Evol 259:199–215
Caicedo AL, Stinchcombe JR, Olsen KM, Schmitt J, Purugganan MD (2004) Epistatic interaction between Arabidopsis FRI and FLC flowering time genes generates a latitudinal cline in a life history trait. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:15670–15675
Ceplitis A, Su YT, Lascoux M (2005) Bayesian inference of evolutionary history from chloroplast microsatellites in the cosmopolitan weed Capsella bursa-pastoris (Brassicaceae). Mol Ecol 14:4221–4233
Crepet WL, Niklas KJ (2009) Darwin’s second “abominable mystery”: why are there so many angiosperm species? Am J Bot 96:366–381
Dietrich MR (2003) Richard Goldschmidt: hopeful monsters and other ‘heresies’. Nat Rev Genet 4:68–74
Fobis-Loisy I, Miege C, Gaude T (2004) Molecular evolution of the S locus controlling mating in the Brassicaceae. Plant Biol 6:109–118
Foxe JP, Slotte T, Stahl EA, Neuffer B, Hurka H, Wright SI (2009) Recent speciation associated with the evolution of selfing in Capsella. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:5241–5245
Franzke A, German D, Al-Shehbaz IA, Mummenhoff K (2009) Arabidopsis family ties: molecular phylogeny and age estimates. Taxon 58:425–432
German DA, Friesen N, Neuffer B, Al-Shehbaz IA, Hurka H (2009) Contribution to ITS phylogeny of the Brassicaceae with special reference to some Asian taxa. Plant Syst Evol 283:33–56
Guo Y-L, Bechsgaard JS, Slotte T, Neuffer B, Lascoux M, Weigel D, Schierup MH (2009) Recent speciation of Capsella rubella from Capsella grandiflora, associated with loss of self-incompatibility and extreme bottleneck. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:5246–5251
Hall AE, Kettler GC, Preuss D (2006) Dynamic evolution at pericentromeres. Genome Res 16:355–364
Hameister S, Neuffer B, Bleeker W (2009) Genetic differentiation and reproductive isolation of a naturally occurring floral homeotic mutant within a wild-type population of Capsella bursa-pastoris (Brassicaceae). Mol Ecol 18:2659–2667
Hay A, Tsiantis M (2006) The genetic basis for differences in leaf form between Arabidopsis thaliana and its wild relative Cardamine hirsuta. Nat Genet 38:942–947
Hintz M, Bartholmes C, Nutt P, Ziermann J, Hameister S, Neuffer B, Theißen G (2006) Catching a ‘hopeful monster’: shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) as a model system to study the evolution of flower development. J Exp Bot 57:3531–3542
Hurka H, Bleeker W, Neuffer B (2003) Evolutionary process associated with biological invasions in the Brassicaceae. Biol Invasions 5:281–292
Hurka H, Freundner S, Brown AHD, Plantholt U (1989) Aspartat aminotransferase isozymes in the genus Capsella (Brassicaceae): subcellular location, gene duplication and polymorphism. Biochem Genet 27:77–90
Hurka H, Neuffer B (1997) Evolutionary processes in the genus Capsella (Brassicaceae). Plant Syst Evol 206:295–316
Hurka H, Paetsch M, Bleeker W, Neuffer B (2005) Evolution within the Brassicaceae. Nova Acta Leopoldina NF92 342:113–127
Ito T, Meyerowitz EM (2000) Overexpression of a gene encoding a cytochrome P450, CYP78A9, induces large and seedless fruit in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 12:1541–1550
Koch MA, Kiefer M (2005) Genome evolution among cruciferous plants: a lecture from the comparison of the genetic maps of three diploid species – Capsella rubella, Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea, and A. thaliana. Am J Bot 92:761–767
Kusaba M, et al. (2001) Self-incompatibility in the genus Arabidopsis: characterization of the S locus in the outcrossing A. lyrata and its autogamous relative A. thaliana. Plant Cell 13:627–643
Linde M, Diel S, Neuffer B (2001) Flowering ecotypes of Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. (Brassicaceae) analysed by a cosegregation of phenotypic characters (QTL) and molecular markers. Annals Bot 87:91–99
Mable BK, Robertson AV, Dart S, di Berardo C, Witham L (2005) Breakdown of self-incompatibility in the perennial Arabidopsis lyrata (Brassicaceae) and its genetic consequences. Evolution 59:1437–1448
Mitchell-Olds T, Schmitt J (2006) Genetic mechanisms and evolutionary significance of natural variation in Arabidopsis. Nature 441:947–952
Mouradov A, Cremer F, Coupland G (2002) Control of flowering time: interacting pathways as a basis for diversity. Plant Cell 14:S111–S130
Mummenhoff K, Hurka H (1990) Evolution of the tetraploid Capsella bursa-pastoris (Brassicaceae): isoelectric focusing analysis of Rubisco. Plant Syst Evol 172:205–213
Nasrallah JB, Liu P, Sherman-Broyles S, Schmidt R, Nasrallah ME (2007) Epigenetic mechanisms for breakdown of self-incompatibility in inter-specific hybrids. Genetics 175:1965–1973
Neuffer B, Bartelheim S (1989) Gen-ecology of Capsella bursa-pastoris from an altitudinal transsect in the alps. Oecologia 81:521–527
Neuffer B, Linde M (1999) Capsella bursa-pastoris – colonisation and adaptation: a globe-trotter conquers the world. Plant evolution in man-made habitats (van Ramsdonk LWD, den Nijs JCM, Eds.). Proc 7th Symp IOPB, Amsterdam 1998
Neuffer B, Meyer-Walf M (1996) Ecotype variation in relation to man made habitats in Capsella: field and trampling area. Flora 191:49–57
Nutt P, Ziermann J, Hintz M, Neuffer B, Theißen G (2006) Capsella as a model system to study the evolutionary relevance of floral homeotic mutants. Pl Syst Evol 259:217–235
Paetsch M, Mayland-Quellhorst S, Neuffer B (2006) Evolution of the self-incompatibility system in the Brassicaceae: identification of the S-locus receptor kinase (SRK) in self-incompatible Capsella grandiflora. Heredity 97:283–290
Rea AC, Nasrallah JB (2008) Self-incompatibility systems: barriers to self-fertilization in flowering plants. Int J Dev Biol 52:627–636
Riley HP (1936) The genetics and physiology of self-sterility in the genus Capsella. Genetics 21:24–39
Roux F, Touzet P, Cuguen J, Le Corre V (2006) How to be early flowering: an evolutionary perspective. Trends Plant Sci 11:375–381
Schranz ME, Lysak MA, Mitchell-Olds T (2006) The ABC’s of comparative genomics in the Brassicaceae: building blocks of crucifer genomes. Trends Plant Sci 11:535–542
Sherman-Broyles S, Boggs N, Farkas A, Liu P, Vrebalov J, Nasrallah ME, Nasrallah JB (2007) S locus genes and the evolution of self-fertility in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell 19:94–106
Shimizu K, Cork JM, Caicedo AL, Mays CA, Moore RC, Olsen KM, Ruzsa S, Coop G, Bustamante CD, Awadalla P, Purugganan MD (2004) Darwinian selection on a selfing locus. Science 306:2081–2084
Shull GH (1914) Duplicate genes for capsule-form in Capsella bursa-pastoris. Z Abst u Vererbl 12:97–149
Slotte T, Ceplitis A, Neuffer B, Hurka H, Lascoux M (2006) Intrageneric phylogeny of Capsella (Brassicaceae) and the origin of the tetraploid C. bursa-pastoris based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences. Am J Bot 93:1714–1724
Slotte T, Holm K, McIntyre LM, Lagercrantz U, Lascoux M (2007) Differential expression of genes important for adaptation in Capsella bursa-pastoris (Brasicaceae). Plant Physiol 145:160–173
Slotte T, Huang H, Lascoux M, Ceplitis A (2008) Polyploid speciation did not confer instant reproductive isolation in Capsella (Brassicaceae). Mol Biol Evol 25:1472–1481
Stebbins GL (1950) Variation and evolution in plants. Columbia Univ Press, New York, NY
Stransfeld L, Lenhard M (2007) Plant organ size control. encyclopedia of life sciences. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0003363
Tang C, Toomajian C, Sherman-Broyles S, Plagnol V, Guo Y-L, Hu TT, Clark RM, Nasrallah JB, Weigel D, Nordborg M (2007) The evolution of selfing in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science 317:1070–1072
Theißen G (2006) The proper place of hopeful monsters in evolutionary biology. Theory Biosci 124:349–369
Theißen G (2009) Saltational evolution: hopeful monsters are here to stay. Theory Biosci 128:43–51
Vergara-Silva F (2003) Plants and the conceptual articulation of evolutionary developmental biology. Biol Philos 18:249–284
Yogeeswaran K, Frary A, York TL, Amenta A, Lesser AH, Nasrallah JB, Tanksley SD, Nasrallah ME (2005) Comparative genome analyses of Arabidopsis spp.: inferring chromosomal rearrangement events in the evolutionary history of A. thaliana. Genome Res 15:505–515
Ziermann J, Ritz MS, Hameister S, Abel C, Hoffmann MH, Neuffer B, Theißen G (2009) Floral visitation and reproductive traits of Stamenoid petals, a naturally occuring floral homeotic variant of Capsella bursa-pastoris (Brassicaceae). Planta 230:1239–1249
Zunk K, Mummenhoff K, Hurka H (1999) Phylogenetic relationship in tribe Lepidieae (Brassicaceae) based on chloroplast DNA restriction site variation. Can J Bot 77:1504–1512
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Barbara Neuffer (Osnabrück), Renate Schmidt (Gatersleben) and Ian Bancroft (Norwich) for valuable comments that helped to improve the manuscript. Many thanks to Cristina Ferrándiz (Valencia) for a personal communication, and to Janine Ziermann (Jena) for the original photographs used in Fig. 13.1. Work on the Capsella bursa-pastoris Spe variety in the author’s laboratory has been funded by grants TH 417/4-1 and -2 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Theißen, G. (2011). The Genetics of Capsella . In: Schmidt, R., Bancroft, I. (eds) Genetics and Genomics of the Brassicaceae. Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models, vol 9. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7118-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7118-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7117-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7118-0
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)