ArticleNature plants2023
Balanophora genomes display massively convergent evolution with other extreme holoparasites and provide novel insights into parasite-host interactions.
Article in Nature plants, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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22 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phylogenomics Clarifies Plastome Reduction and Phylogenetic Relationships in Monotropoideae.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The genome of Thesium ramosoides (Santalales) reveals evolutionary dynamics associated with parasitism and alpine adaptation.Plant communications · 2026Article
- The Polysaccharides fromNutrients · 2026Article
- Photosynthetic activity in the heterotrophic plant genus Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) is modulated by phylogeny and ontogeny.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Progress and prospects of parasitic plant biodiversity genomics.Plant & cell physiology · 2026Review
- Interplant signal transduction between dodder (Cuscuta) and their hosts.Plant & cell physiology · 2026Review
- Genomic Footprints of Multiple Host Lineages in the Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genomes of the HoloparasitePlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Reshaping organellar translation and tRNA metabolism: the consequences of photosynthesis loss and massive horizontal gene transfer.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genome and Single-Cell Transcriptome Reveal the Evolution of Holoparasitic Plants: A Case Study of Cistanche deserticola.Plant biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- A record-setting mitogenome in the holoparasitic plant Balanophora yakushimensis accompanied by exceptional loss of organellar DNA repair and recombination genes.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Large-scale Genome Analyses Provide Insights into Hymenoptera Evolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Diverging repeatomes in holoparasitic Hydnoraceae uncover a playground of genome evolution.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Identification of a Highly VirulentPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Genomic signatures associated with the evolutionary loss of egg yolk in parasitoid wasps.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The evolution of the plastid genomes in the holoparasitic Balanophoraceae.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- PhytoKeys · 2025Article
- Genome-wide identification and comparative analysis of strigolactone biosynthetic genes in major solanaceous crops.PloS one · 2025Article
- Photosynthetic demands on translational machinery drive retention of redundant tRNA metabolism in plant organelles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Article
- Cytonuclear evolution in fully heterotrophic plants: lifestyles and gene function determine scenarios.BMC plant biology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
30 authors at 9 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Parasitic plants have evolved to be subtly or severely dependent on host plants to complete their life cycle. To provide new insights into the biology of parasitic plants in general, we assembled genomes for members of the sandalwood order Santalales, including a stem hemiparasite (Scurrula) and two highly modified root holoparasites (Balanophora) that possess chimaeric host-parasite tubers. Comprehensive genome comparisons reveal that hemiparasitic Scurrula has experienced a relatively minor degree of gene loss compared with autotrophic plants, consistent with its moderate degree of parasitism. Nonetheless, patterns of gene loss appear to be substantially divergent across distantly related lineages of hemiparasites. In contrast, Balanophora has experienced substantial gene loss for the same sets of genes as an independently evolved holoparasite lineage, the endoparasitic Sapria (Malpighiales), and the two holoparasite lineages experienced convergent contraction of large gene families through loss of paralogues. This unprecedented convergence supports the idea that despite their extreme and strikingly divergent life histories and morphology, the evolution of these and other holoparasitic lineages can be shaped by highly predictable modes of genome reduction. We observe substantial evidence of relaxed selection in retained genes for both hemi- and holoparasitic species. Transcriptome data also document unusual and novel interactions between Balanophora and host plants at the host-parasite tuber interface tissues, with evidence of mRNA exchange, substantial and active hormone exchange and immune responses in parasite and host.
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