Fig. 6: A schematic presentation of the evolution of small RNA pathway-related genes across Archaeplastida based on the phylogenetic analyses presented in Figs. 3–5 and 6 Supplementary Figs. 1–10.

Blue and purple boxes represent the siRNA and miRNA pathway-related genes, respectively. Habitat distribution of different taxa is shown in different colors: brown (subaerial/terrestrial), light green (freshwater), blue (marine). Mya (in red) indicates divergence time in million years for the next node. Further details are presented in the “Results” and “Discussion” sections.