Can we discover new plant FA structures? What branches of plant evolution are missing FA data?
Analysis of seeds of thousands of plant species has revealed the occurrence of hundreds of different fatty acid structures. Are there more unique fatty acid structures still to be discovered? Examination of all the plant species represented in PlantFAdb, together with recent phylogenetic information allows us to identify branches in plant evolution whose seeds so far have not been analyzed for fatty acid composition.
The table below presents information on branches of the plant kingdom that have had little or no fatty acid analysis. Approximately 15 % of plant orders and 40% of plant families have not been analyzed for FA composition. Therefore , many (>100?) new fatty acid structures might yet be discovered.
| A Resource for Discovery of New FA Structures: Orders without Data in PlantFAdb | |||||
| Order | Description | Families | Genera | Species | Family names |
| Amborellales | Amborella trichopoda is only species. Molecular phylogenetic analyses consistently place the genus at or near the base of the flowering plant lineage | 1 | 1 | 1 | Amborellaceae |
| Berberidopsidales | Berberidopsidales is an order of Southern Hemisphere woody flowering plants. | 2 | 3 | 4 | Berberidopsidaceae; Aextoxicaceae |
| Bruniales | Bruniales not used at the rank of order until a 2008 study suggested that Bruniaceae and Columelliaceae are sister clades | 2 | 14 | 79 | Bruniaceae; Columelliaceae |
| Canellales | Canellales is one of the four orders of the magnoliids. It is defined to contain two families: Canellaceae and Winteraceae, which comprise 136 species of fragrant trees and shrubs | 2 | 9-13 | 136 | Canellaceae; Winteraceae |
| Ceratophyllales | Hornwort order of flowering plants, consisting of a single family (Ceratophyllaceae ) with one cosmopolitan genus ( Ceratophyllum ) containing 10 species | 1 | 1 | 10 | Ceratophyllaceae |
| Escalloniales | Member of Asterids clade; ~130 species in 7 genera | 1 | 7 | 130 | Escalloniaceae |
| Huerteales | Shrubs or small trees found in most tropical or warm temperate regions. The flowers of Perrottetia have been studied in detail but otherwise, all five of the genera are poorly known | 4 | 6 | 24 | Petenaeaceae; Gerrardinaceae; Tapisciaceae; Dipentodontaceae |
| Paracryphiales | Family of woody shrubs and trees native to Australia, southeast Asia, and New Caledonia. In the APG III system of 2009, the family is placed in its own order, Paracryphiales, in the campanulid clade of the asterids | 1 | 3 | 36 | Paracryphiaceae |
| Petrosaviales | Very small order of rare leafless achlorophyllous, mycoheterotrophic plants found in dark montane rainforests in Japan, China, Southeast Asia and Borneo | 1 | 2 | 4 | Petrosaviaceae |
| Sabiales | Represented by a single family (Sabiaceae), which is also considered by some as a member of Proteales. | 1 | 3 | 66 | Sabiaceae |
| Vahliales | Herbs and subshrubs that grow in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. This family had previously been placed in the Saxifragales order, and was reassigned to the new order Vahliales in 2016 by the APG IV system | 1 | 1 | 5 | Vahliaceae |