Mycoheterotrophic Epirixanthes (Polygalaceae) has a typical angiosperm mitogenome but unorthodox plastid genomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Fully mycoheterotrophic plants derive carbon and other nutrients from root-associated fungi and have lost the ability to photosynthesize. While mycoheterotroph plastomes are often degraded compared with green plants, the effect of this unusual symbiosis on mitochondrial genome evolution is unknown. By providing the first complete organelle genome data from Polygalaceae, one of only three eudicot families that developed mycoheterotrophy, we explore how both organellar genomes evolved after loss of photosynthesis.

Methods

We sequenced and assembled four complete plastid genomes and a mitochondrial genome from species of Polygalaceae, focusing on non-photosynthetic Epirixanthes. We compared these genomes with those of other mycoheterotroph and parasitic plan

SUBMITTER: Petersen G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6868387 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature