Inferring the nature of the most recent common ancestor of plants

大约5亿年前，植物征服了贫瘠的陆地栖息地。今天在地球表面上茁壮成长的所有植物生命都源于这一奇异事件。基于在第一个MAdLand资助期内获得的化石，基因组和性状数据，我们将进行最先进的基因组学和祖先状态重建。因此，我们的目标是推断植物关键性状的演变之前和之后过渡到土地。这些分析有望大大增加我们对进化适应事件的性质和时间轴的理解，以适应一个完全不同的环境，使植物能够在陆地上生活。该项目旨在揭开植物最新共同祖先的神秘本质。

Approximately 500 million years ago, plant life conquered a barren terrestrial habitat. All plant life thriving on the surface of Earth today is derived from that singular event. Based on fossil, genomic and trait data that has become available during the first MAdLand funding period, we will perform state-of-the-art phylogenomics and ancestral state reconstruction. Thus, we aim to infer the evolution of plant key traits before and after the transition to land. These analyzes are expected to much increase our understanding of the nature and timeline of evolutionary adaptive events to a drastically different environment, allowing plants to live on land. The project aims at unravelling the enigmatic nature of the most recent common ancestor of plants.