ELECTROPHORESIS IS MODIFYING OUR CONCEPTS OF EVOLUTION IN HOMOSPOROUS PTERIDOPHYTES

Analyses of electrophoretically detectable enzyme variants in homosporous pteridophytes are facilitating the development of new insights into their genetics and evolution. The number of isozymes per enzyme indicates that homosporous pteridophytes are genetic diploids, in spite of the fact that they have high chromosome numbers. High levels of heterozygosity and genetic variability in sporophytic populations indicate that many diploid species are outcrossing with inbreeding representing a derived character state. Because the congeneric homosporous pteridophyte species analyzed to date have low genetic identities, allozymic characters are also proving to be useful as genomic markers for elucidating patterns of reticulate evolution. The accumulated data suggest that the genetic system of homosporous pteridophytes differs fundamentally from that of seed plants. The present genomic constitution of extant taxa may be the result of repeated cycles of allopolyploidy followed by gene silencing and extinction of progenitor taxa. Alternatively, the original homosporous pteridophytes may have had high chromosome numbers. Although current species probably evolved recently, their phylogenetic roots may be difficult to trace because even closely related pteridophytes are genetically distant and extinction has obliterated the ancestral intermediates between lineages. These hypotheses can and should be tested using a combination of molecular, phylogenetic, and population biology methods.