New Publication! Low-frequency somatic mutations are heritable in tropical trees Dicorynia guianensis and Sextonia rubra

Another publication with the collaboration of FLOWer Lab, this time on the evolution of tropical trees!
This scientific article in the renowned journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) entitled ‘Low-frequency somatic mutations are inheritable in tropical trees Dicorynia guianensis and Sextonia rubra’ provides new data on how somatic mutations vary along the branches of tropical trees and how they are transmitted to offspring through fruit.
The aim of this study was to identify the mutations accumulated during the growth of two tropical trees, Dicorynia guianensis and Sextonia rubra, sampled in French Guiana. Due to recent advances in genomics, two new high-quality genomes of two tropical tree species were sequenced, making it possible to analyse the genetics of both trees in detail.
Led by teams from INRAE in collaboration with researchers from CIRAD (Cirad - La recherche agronomique pour le développement) and the CNRS (CNRS News), João Loureiro, from the FLOWer Lab (Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet) collaborated with the estimation of the genome size of both trees, information essentially used to select candidate tree species for their genome sequence.

Most of the mutations detected were very rare in the tissues and affect all the chromosomes of the individuals. Despite this, their heritability was demonstrated by fruit-specific sequencing, and this detection opens up new perspectives for understanding the mechanisms of evolution in tropical trees.
Read the full article here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313312121
And the press release here: https://www.inrae.fr/.../unveiling-rare-diversity-origin...