10.26180/5c073cf2a44eb STEVIE NICOLE FLORENT STEVIE NICOLE FLORENT Conservation of an epidermal master regulator across land plant evolution Monash University 2018 Plant evolution Marchantia polymorpha C4HDZ Evolutionary Biology Plant Biology 2018-12-05 02:50:23 Thesis https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Conservation_of_an_epidermal_master_regulator_across_land_plant_evolution/7418801 Land plants arose from freshwater green algae. Therefore, the movement to land required a series of developmental innovations to achieve the enormous species diversity we recognise today. One innovation was an outer covering that protects against desiccation. This thesis found that a gene family responsible for directing development of this layer in derived flowering plants likely has the same function in a liverwort, an early diverging land plant lineage. This suggests development of this layer was via a similar process in the first plants 470 million years ago and helps us understand the developmental processes required for the water to land transition.