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The plastid-targeted transcription factorWhirly1(WHY1) has been implicated in chloroplast biogenesis, plastid genome stability, and fungal defense response, which together represent characteristics of interest for the study of autotrophic losses across the angiosperms. While gene loss in the plastid and nuclear genomes has been well studied in mycoheterotrophic plants, the evolution of the molecular mechanisms impacting genome stability is completely unknown. Here, we characterize the evolution ofWHY1in four early transitional mycoheterotrophic orchid species in the genusCorallorhizaby synthesizing the results of phylogenetic, transcriptomic, and comparative genomic analyses withWHY1genomic sequences sampled from 21 orders of angiosperms. We found an increased number of non-canonicalWHY1isoforms assembled from all but the greenestCorallorhizaspecies, including intron retention in some isoforms. WithinCorallorhiza, phylotranscriptomic analyses revealed the presence of tissue-specific differential expression ofWHY1in only the most photosynthetically capable species and a coincident increase in the number of non-canonicalWHY1isoforms assembled from fully mycoheterotrophic species. Gene- and codon-level tests ofWHY1selective regimes did not infer significant signal of either relaxed selection or episodic diversifying selection inCorallorhizabut did so for relaxed selection in the late-stage full mycoheterotrophic orchidsEpipogium aphyllumandGastrodia elata. Additionally, nucleotide substitutions that most likely impact the function ofWHY1, such as nonsense mutations, were only observed in late-stage mycoheterotrophs. We propose that our findings suggest that splicing and expression changes may precede the selective shifts we inferred for late-stage mycoheterotrophic species, which therefore does not support a primary role forWHY1in the transition to mycoheterotrophy in the Orchidaceae. Taken together, this study provides the most comprehensive view ofWHY1evolution across the angiosperms to date. 

Abstract The capability to generate densely sampled single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data is essential in diverse subdisciplines of biology, including crop breeding, pathology, forensics, forestry, ecology, evolution and conservation. However, the wet‐laboratory expertise and bioinformatics training required to conduct genome‐scale variant discovery remain limiting factors for investigators with limited resources.Here we present ISSRseq, a PCR‐based method for reduced representation of genomic variation using simple sequence repeats as priming sites to sequence inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) regions. Briefly, ISSR regions are amplified with single primers, pooled, used to construct sequencing libraries with a commercially available kit, and sequenced on the Illumina platform. We also present a flexible bioinformatic pipeline that assembles ISSR loci, calls and hard filters variants, outputs data matrices in common formats, and conducts population analyses using R.Using three angiosperm species as case studies, we demonstrate that ISSRseq is highly repeatable, necessitates only simple wet‐laboratory skills and commonplace instrumentation, is flexible in terms of the number of single primers used, and can generate genomic‐scale variant discovery on par with existing RRS methods which require more complex wet‐laboratory procedures.ISSRseq represents a straightforward approach to SNP genotyping in any organism, and we predict that this method will be particularly useful for those studying population genomics and phylogeography of non‐model organisms. Furthermore, the ease of ISSRseq relative to other RRS methods should prove useful to those lacking advanced expertise in wet‐laboratory methods or bioinformatics.