Our manuscript entitled “Genomic studies in Linum shed light on the evolution of the distyly supergene and the molecular basis of convergent floral evolution” has now been accepted for publication in the New Phytologist! Big congratulations to all coauthors, and especially to co-first authors Panagiotis-Ioannis Zervakis and Zoé Postel!

In the study, we present new high-quality haplotype-phased genome assemblies of Linum grandiflorum and Linum perenne, and use these as a foundation to identify the distyly S-locus supergenes of these species. We compare and contrast gene and repeat content at the S-loci of L. grandiflorum and L. perenne with that of the previously characterized S-locus of L. tenue, and show that only two genes are conserved across all species, the distyly candidate genes TSS1 and WDR-44. We infer an ancient origin of the Linum distyly S-locus at or around the diversification of the genus, and show that distyly candidate genes are conserved at the sequence level over 33 Mya. Finally, we show that the distyly S-locus likely regulates style length via a conserved mechanism depending on the brassinosteroid pathway, the same pathway that regulates style length in distylous Turnera and Primula. Together, our results shed light on the age and mode of origin of the distyly supergene in Linum, and suggest that specific hormonal pathways have repeatedly contributed to the convergent phenotypic evolution of distyly.