Desiccation tolerance has evolved repeatedly in plants as an adaptation to survive extreme environments. Plants use similar biophysical and cellular mechanisms to survive life without water, but convergence at the molecular, gene and regulatory levels remains to be tested. Here we explore the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the recurrent evolution of desiccation tolerance across grasses. We observed substantial convergence in gene duplication and expression patterns associated with desiccation. Syntenic genes of shared origin are activated across species, indicative of parallel evolution. In other cases, similar metabolic pathways are induced but using different gene sets, pointing towards phenotypic convergence. Species-specific mechanisms supplement these shared core mechanisms, underlining the complexity and diversity of evolutionary adaptations to drought. Our findings provide insight into the evolutionary processes driving desiccation tolerance and highlight the roles of parallel and convergent evolution in response to environmental challenges.

植物的耐干燥能力不断进化，作为适应极端环境的能力。植物利用类似的生物物理和细胞机制在没有水的情况下生存，但分子、基因和调控水平上的趋同仍有待测试。在这里，我们探讨了草类耐旱性反复进化的进化机制。我们观察到与干燥相关的基因复制和表达模式的显着趋同。共享起源的同线基因在物种间被激活，表明平行进化。在其他情况下，相似的代谢途径被诱导，但使用不同的基因集，指向表型趋同。物种特异性机制补充了这些共享的核心机制，强调了干旱进化适应的复杂性和多样性。我们的研究结果提供了对驱动干燥耐受性的进化过程的见解，并强调了平行和趋同进化在应对环境挑战中的作用。