ArticleThe Plant cell2013
Mechanisms of functional and physical genome reduction in photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic parasitic plants of the broomrape family.
Article in The Plant cell, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 172 papers.
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172 citing papers in PubMed, 341 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genomes of Conopholis americana and Epifagus virginiana: two holoparasitic plants (Orobanchaceae).G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Vestigial Plastids in Parasitic Plants: Evolutionary Remnants or Adaptive Innovations?Plant, cell & environment · 2026Review
- Chloroplast Phylogenomics and Evolutionary History of the Alpine EndemicInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Chromosome-Level Reference Genome of the Beach False Foxglove, Agalinis fasciculata (Orobanchaceae).Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Chloroplast genomes provide new insights into the phylogeny and evolution of the genus Hibiscus L.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Mycoheterotrophy and plastid genome evolution in the early-diverging epidendroid orchid tribe Nervilieae: independent transitions inAoB PLANTS · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial genome evolution of the hemiparasitic plantFrontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Comparative plastomes of fiveAoB PLANTS · 2025Article
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- Analysis of synonymous codon usage bias in the chloroplast genome of five Caragana.BMC plant biology · 2025Article
- Elucidating the evolutionary dynamics of parasitism in Cuscuta: in-depth phylogenetic reconstruction and extensive plastomes reduction.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Reduced plastid genomes of colorless facultative pathogens Prototheca (Chlorophyta) are retained for membrane transport genes.BMC biology · 2024Article
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- Complete chloroplast genomes of the hemiparasitic genusEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Coordinated molecular and ecological adaptations underlie a highly successful parasitoid.eLife · 2024Article
- Comparative and phylogenetic analyses of Loranthaceae plastomes provide insights into the evolutionary trajectories of plastome degradation in hemiparasitic plants.BMC plant biology · 2024Article
- Dynamic changes in the plastid and mitochondrial genomes of the angiosperm Corydalis pauciovulata (Papaveraceae).BMC plant biology · 2024Article
- Variations and reduction of plastome are associated with the evolution of parasitism in Convolvulaceae.Plant molecular biology · 2024Article
- Comparative Analysis of Chloroplast Pan-Genomes and Transcriptomics Reveals Cold Adaptation inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
112 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Nonphotosynthetic plants possess strongly reconfigured plastomes attributable to convergent losses of photosynthesis and housekeeping genes, making them excellent systems for studying genome evolution under relaxed selective pressures. We report the complete plastomes of 10 photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic parasites plus their nonparasitic sister from the broomrape family (Orobanchaceae). By reconstructing the history of gene losses and genome reconfigurations, we find that the establishment of obligate parasitism triggers the relaxation of selective constraints. Partly because of independent losses of one inverted repeat region, Orobanchaceae plastomes vary 3.5-fold in size, with 45 kb in American squawroot (Conopholis americana) representing the smallest plastome reported from land plants. Of the 42 to 74 retained unique genes, only 16 protein genes, 15 tRNAs, and four rRNAs are commonly found. Several holoparasites retain ATP synthase genes with intact open reading frames, suggesting a prolonged function in these plants. The loss of photosynthesis alters the chromosomal architecture in that recombinogenic factors accumulate, fostering large-scale chromosomal rearrangements as functional reduction proceeds. The retention of DNA fragments is strongly influenced by both their proximity to genes under selection and the co-occurrence with those in operons, indicating complex constraints beyond gene function that determine the evolutionary survival time of plastid regions in nonphotosynthetic plants.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.