The loss of photosynthetic pathways in the plastid and nuclear genomes of the non-photosynthetic mycoheterotrophic eudicot Monotropa hypopitys.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chloroplasts of most plants are responsible for photosynthesis and contain a conserved set of about 110 genes that encode components of housekeeping gene expression machinery and photosynthesis-related functions. Heterotrophic plants obtaining nutrients from other organisms and their plastid genomes represent model systems in which to study the effects of relaxed selective pressure on photosynthetic function. The most evident is a reduction in the size and gene content of the plastome, which correlates with the loss of genes encoding photosynthetic machinery which become unnecessary. Transition to a non-photosynthetic lifestyle is expected also to relax the selective pressure on photosynthetic machinery in the nuclear genome, however, the corresponding changes are less k

SUBMITTER: Ravin NV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5123295 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature