Continued adaptation of C4 photosynthesis after an initial burst of changes in the Andropogoneae grasses
Matheus Bianconi, Jan Hackel, Maria Vorontsova, Adriana Alberti, Watchara Arthan, Sean Burke, Melvin Duvall, Elizabeth Kellogg, Sébastien Lavergne, Michael McKain, Alexandre Meunier, Colin Osborne, Paweena Traiperm, Pascal-Antoine Christin & Guillaume Besnard
C4 photosynthesis is a complex trait that sustains fast growth and high productivity in tropical and subtropical conditions and evolved repeatedly in flowering plants. One of the major C4 lineages is Andropogoneae, a group of ~ 1,200 grass species that includes some of the world's most important crops and species dominating tropical and some temperate grasslands. Previous efforts to understand C4 evolution in the group have compared a few model C4 plants to distantly related...