Evolution of plastid gene rps2 in a lineage of hemiparasitic and holoparasitic plants: many losses of photosynthesis and complex patterns of rate variation.

ABSTRACT: The plastid genomes of some nonphotosynthetic parasitic plants have experienced an extreme reduction in gene content and an increase in evolutionary rate of remaining genes. Nothing is known of the dynamics of these events or whether either is a direct outcome of the loss of photosynthesis. The parasitic Scrophulariaceae and Orobanchaceae, representing a continuum of heterotrophic ability ranging from photosynthetic hemiparasites to nonphotosynthetic holoparasites, are used to investigate these issues. We present a phylogenetic hypothesis for parasitic Scrophulariaceae and Orobanchaceae based on sequences of the plastid gene rps2, encoding the S2 subunit of the plastid ribosome. Parasitic Scrophulariaceae and Orobanchaceae form a monophyletic group in which parasitism can be inferred to ha

SUBMITTER: dePamphilis CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC23827 | biostudies-literature | 1997 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature