Moss biopolymer reveals how plants first colonized land
A new study of mosses brings scientists one step closer to solving a mystery in plant biology: how plants made the transition from water to land 450 million years ago. An international team of researchers report in the March 8 issue of Nature Communications that a gene found in a moss may hold the blueprint for a biopolymer that provided structure and a protective outer layer necessary for early land plants to survive life outside of water.