In the realm of cell and molecular genetics, pteridophytes provide a model system that is simpler and easier to manipulate than those in the more complex flowering plants.
Pteridophytes can provide important perspectives in understanding the structure of meristems.
Studying ferns and other cryptogams is crucial to modern studies of photomorphogenesis and sex determination among plants in general and can help to appreciate the independence and interdependence of sporophytes and gametophytes. Analyzing the genetics of homosporous pteridophytes and their remarkably high chromosome numbers can provide valuable new information concerning the way that genes are expressed and controlled. As ancestors to the seed plants, pteridophytes offer valuable perspectives on the essence of diploidy and polyploidy and the mechanisms that maintain outcrossing mating systems in plants. Detailed studies of pteridophyte population genetics and ecology necessarily integrate different life history stages and provide a composite picture of the relative importance of gametophytes and sporophytes in initiating and maintaining natural populations. Additional studies of the systematics and evolutionary biology of pteridophytes are necessary to complement and provide a foundational context for the phylogeny of seed plants.