The evolution and development of sporangia-The fundamental reproductive organ of land plant sporophytes.

A key innovation of land plants is the origin and evolution of the sporangium, the fundamental reproductive structure of the diploid sporophyte. In vascular plants, whether the structure is a cone, fertile leaf, or flower-all are clusters of sporangia. The evolution of morphologically distinct sporangia (heterospory) and retention of the gametophyte evolved three times independently as a prerequisite for the evolution of seeds. This review summarizes the development of vascular plant sporangia, molecular genetics of angiosperm sporangia, and provides a framework to investigate evolution and development in vascular plant sporangia.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Barbara A. Ambrose reports financial support was provided by New York Botanical Garden. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)