Research team illuminates system by which plants have formed secondary buds since ancient times
(PHYSorg.com Biology)

A collaborative research group has succeeded in identifying an important transcription factor, GCAM1, which allows liverwort plants to asexually reproduce through creating clonal progenies (vegetative reproduction). Furthermore, this transcription factor was revealed to have the same origin as those which regulate secondary bud formation in angiosperms. That this transcription factor was found in liverwort suggests that it was an important ancient development in the common ancestor of land plants at least 430 million years ago.