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News Release 08-084
When Plants "Think" Alike
New genetic evidence shows that the same trait developed independently on separate branches of the evolutionary tree
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![The primitive plant <i>Selaginella</i> has lignin and cellulose in many of its cell walls.](/news/mmg/media/images/lignin_f.jpg)
Both lignin and cellulose are found in the rigid cell walls of the xylem cells (those that conduct water) in the primitive plant, Selaginella.
Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation; Selaginella cross section SEM by Jing-Ke Weng, Clint Chapple, Purdue University; Lignin structure from Wout Bergjan, John Ralph, Marie Baucher (Annual Review of Plant Biology, Vol. 54:519-546, June 2003); Cellulose structure from http://www.chusa.jussieu.fr/disc/bio_cell/
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![Frond of the lycophyte <i>Selaginella moellendorffii</i>.](/news/mmg/media/images/lignin2_f.jpg)
Frond of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii. Biologists have discovered that a fundamental building block in the cells of flowering plants evolved independently, yet almost identically, in the 420-million-year-old lycophyte lineage. Called syringyl lignin, the building block is a critical part of the plants' scaffolding and water-transport systems, yet it apparently emerged separately much like flight arose separately in both bats and birds.
Credit: Jing-Ke Weng, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University
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![Lead author Jing-Ke Weng of Purdue University.](/news/mmg/media/images/lignin3_f.jpg)
Jing-Ke Weng, the graduate student in Clint Chapple's lab at Purdue University who conducted the Selaginella lignin research supported by NSF.
Credit: Jing-Ke Weng, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University
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![Scanning electron microscope view of the water conducting tissues of lycophyte <i>Selaginella</i>.](/news/mmg/media/images/lignin4_f.jpg)
Scanning electron microscope view of the water conducting tissues of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii.
Credit: Jing-Ke Weng, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University
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![Scanning electron microscope view of the stem anatomy of the lycophyte <i>Selaginella</i>.](/news/mmg/media/images/lignin5_f.jpg)
Scanning electron microscope view of the stem anatomy of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii.
Credit: Jing-Ke Weng, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University
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