Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Parasitic Plants Absorb DNA from Host Plants

Richard Dawkins would get a big bang out of this in seeking understanding how DNA in different species can develop highly specific relationships between each other.  In this case, parasitic plants absorb DNA from plants they attack and some of that DNA is incorporate into the parasite's own genome.  (Science Daily:  Parasitic plants may form weapons out of genes stolen from hosts)

It seems normally bacteria and maybe virus as well can absorb DNA from cells they infect but the plant is at a much higher level and shows a similar phenomenon so maybe that gets the Dawkins' crew sniffing about for these gene transfers work.

In a study, researchers detected 52 incidents of the nonsexual transfer of DNA -- known as horizontal gene transfer, or HGT -- from a host plant that later became functional into members of a parasitic plant family known as the broomrapes, said Claude dePamphilis, professor of biology, Penn State.  The transferred genes then became functional in the parasitic species. Although considered rare in more plants and other complex species, like plants, HGT may thus occur in some parasitic plants, an insight that could lead to better methods of controlling parasitic plants that threaten agriculture, he added.

"These parasitic plants that we study from the broomrape family include some of the the world's most devastating agricultural weeds," said dePamphilis.  "The HGT discovery is really part of our effort to try to better understand how parasitic plants work and how we can better control them.  Our hope is that we can use this information to find the best strategies to generate, or breed, resistant host plants."

- Science Daily


This has got to get geneticists wigged since this is no part of Mendelian genetics when genes can jump from one set of genome tracks to another.  Maybe this is at the root of the phenomena Dawkins observed but there are many studying that.

One of the highest amusements in sci fi is finding rules and then breaking them and this type of genetic transfer breaks lots of them.  I imagine it goes back to Dawkins wondering how did any genome get the ability to absorb genes from another one in the first place.  According to Darwinian evolution, only the fittest survive and the species adapts but that doesn't include shoplifting any genetics from other organisms.

There may have been some papers I missed on research into how DNA, RNA, etc start 'assembling themselves' but I'm fairly sure such research is taking place.  Here at the Rockhouse, that's one of the most intriguing aspects of evolution with how did DNA ever come to exist in the first place.


Probably there isn't even a horror sci fi extension in the parasitic plant since it's only going to absorb DNA from whichever other plant it attacks so you're not likely to get The Beast That Destroyed New York that way.

The other extension is when some bacteria absorbs some DNA from some other organism and becomes super deadly.  Then you've got a Michael Crichton novel.

Do have fun with this one.

No comments: