Seminarios del IBUNAM

During the evolution to parasitism, plants undergo major changes, especially in holoparasitic lineages. Since those parasites do not conduct any photosynthesis, nor do they contain any chlorophyll, their morphology as well as their plastomes are extremely reduced. The reason for this is drastic gene loss due to relaxed selective constraint on genes involved in photosynthesis among others. One of the oldest parasitic lineages is the Hydnoraceae. Genomic data of various species allowed us to identify, characterize, and compare their organellar genomes with respect to gene content and structure and compare this data with closely related autotrophic species.