Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of tylose formation in plants. Trinity College Dublin reports.
Tyloses are special plant formations that are a bubble-like extension of the parenchymal cell into the lumen of adjacent vessels. They may occur in response to decay of plant tissue by bacteria and fungi, or in the case of other lesions. Thylouses prevent bacterial and fungal pathogens from entering the heartwood of living trees, but it is unknown at what evolutionary stage the trees became capable of establishing such defenses.
Now paleontologists discovered The earliest evidence of tylose formation is in a Late Devonian fossil tree (360 million years old) from the bowels of the Irish Hook Head peninsula. These plants lived long before dinosaurs and even flying insects. Only microorganisms, fungi, and early relatives of spiders and centipedes formed the first primitive forests inhabited.
Tyloses have been found in the petrified wood of an extinct plant group known as progymnosperms. These plants are particularly important because they were the first trees to resemble modern trees, with a large, woody trunk, branches, and a complex root system.
The authors hope their discovery will help build a complete picture of the evolution of ancient plants.
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