The dynamics of functional classes of plant genes in rediploidized ancient polyploids

BACKGROUND: To understand the particular evolutionary patterns of plant genomes, there is a need to systematically survey the fate of the subgenomes of polyploids fixed as whole genome duplicates, including patterns of retention of duplicate, triplicate, etc. genes. RESULTS: We measure the simultaneous dynamics of duplicate orthologous gene loss in rosids, in asterids, and in monocots, as influenced by biological functional class. This pan-angiosperm view confirms common tendencies and consistency through time for both ancient and more recent whole genome polyploidization events. CONCLUSIONS: The gene loss analysis represents an assessment of post-polyploidization evolution, at the level of individual gene families within and across sister genomes. Functional analysis confirms universal trends previously reported for more recent plant polyploidy events: genes involved with regulation and responses were retained in multiple copies, while genes involved with metabolic and catalytic processes tended to lose copies, across all three groups of plants.