Editing Developmental biology (section)

=== Evolution of plant morphology ===
Transcription factors and transcriptional regulatory networks play key roles in plant morphogenesis and their evolution. During plant landing, many novel transcription factor families emerged and are preferentially wired into the networks of multicellular development, reproduction, and organ development, contributing to more complex morphogenesis of land plants.<ref name="MBE_1767">{{cite journal | vauthors = Jin J, He K, Tang X, Li Z, Lv L, Zhao Y, Luo J, Gao G | display-authors = 6 | title = An Arabidopsis Transcriptional Regulatory Map Reveals Distinct Functional and Evolutionary Features of Novel Transcription Factors | journal = Molecular Biology and Evolution | volume = 32 | issue = 7 | pages = 1767–73 | date = July 2015 | pmid = 25750178 | pmc = 4476157 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/msv058 | url =http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/7/1767.full| url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160602063847/http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/7/1767.full | archive-date = 2016-06-02 }}</ref>

Most land plants share a common ancestor, multicellular algae. An example of the evolution of plant morphology is seen in charophytes. Studies have shown that charophytes have traits that are homologous to land plants. There are two main theories of the evolution of plant morphology, these theories are the homologous theory and the antithetic theory. The commonly accepted theory for the evolution of plant morphology is the antithetic theory. The antithetic theory states that the multiple mitotic divisions that take place before meiosis, cause the development of the sporophyte. Then the sporophyte will development as an independent organism.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pires ND, Dolan L | title = Morphological evolution in land plants: new designs with old genes | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 367 | issue = 1588 | pages = 508–518 | date = February 2012 | pmid = 22232763 | pmc = 3248709 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2011.0252 }}</ref>