Comparative organellar genomics in heterotrophic plants

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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. We will conduct an extensive study of organellar genome content, sequence, and expression patterns in heterotrophic plants and their closest autotrophic relatives in order to ultimately be able to integrate genomic, functional, and evolutionary data. This will be achieved by sequencing organellar genomes in a large number of heterotrophic plants, comparison of results found in evolutionarily distinct groups, and doing so in a well established historical context. These new data will allow us to test the predictions that some genomic changes precede the evolution of full-blown heterotrophy, that there are limits to how reduced plastomes can be, as well as to ascertain whether the patterns of plastome evolution are gradual or stepwise (punctuated). This investigation will complement other studies being performed in closely related areas and will impact the fields of genomics, molecular evolution, genetic engineering, physiology, and systematics.