Comparative organellar genomics in heterotrophic plants

一些植物从普通绿色植物中窃取营养和/或水分，因此减少或完全失去了光合作用的能力。 我们研究了这些所谓的异养植物（通常称为寄生植物）中的质体基因组。 比较分析的质体沿着全营养谱，从自养，混合营养，以充分异养，将使我们能够评估的程度，基因组的变化发生之前，完全丧失光合作用，并剖析其他质体代谢功能所施加的质体的进化压力。 许多类群的异养植物分别从它们各自的光合亲戚中产生。 我们在这个提议中利用的基本思想是，每一个异养生物谱系都代表了一个独立的自然遗传实验，其质体和基因在放松的功能限制下进化;因此，每一个都代表了研究基因组功能和进化的独特机会。 鉴于在这一系统中反向遗传方法的困难甚至不可能，多个天然质体“突变体”的研究将有助于我们更深入地了解光合作用，其分子组成，以及它们之间的相互作用。

Some plants steal nutrients and/or water from regular green plants and consequently have reduced or completely lost their ability to photosynthesize. We study plastid genomes in a variety of these so-called heterotrophic plants (commonly known as parasitic plants). Comparative analyses of the plastomes along the full trophic spectrum, from autotrophy to mixotrophy to full heterotrophy, will allow us to assess the degree to which genomic changes take place prior to complete loss of photosynthesis, and to dissect the evolutionary pressures on plastomes exerted by other plastid metabolic functions. Many groups of heterotrophic plants arose separately from their respective photosynthetic relatives. The basic idea we take advantage of in this proposal is that each of those lineages of heterotrophs represents an independent natural genetic experiment whose plastids and genes have evolved under relaxed functional constraints; therefore, each represents a unique opportunity to study genome function and evolution. Given the difficulties or even the impossibility of reverse genetic approach in this system, study of multiple natural plastid 'mutants' will contribute to our deeper understanding of photosynthesis, its molecular components, and their interaction.