RNA-seq highlights parallel and contrasting patterns in the evolution of the nuclear genome of fully mycoheterotrophic plants

While photosynthesis is the most notable trait of plants, several lineages of plants (so-called full heterotrophs) have adapted to obtain organic compounds from other sources. The switch to heterotrophy leads to profound changes at the morphological, physiological and genomic levels. Here, we charac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC genomics 2018-08, Vol.19 (1), p.602-602, Article 602
Main Authors: Schelkunov, Mikhail I, Penin, Aleksey A, Logacheva, Maria D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biological evolution
Chloroplasts
Comparative analysis
Epipogium aphyllum
Epipogium roseum
Ericaceae
Evolution
Genes
Genomes
Genomics
Heterotrophs
Heterotrophy
Homology
Loss of photosynthesis
Monotropa hypopithys
Mycoheterotrophic plants
Nuclear genome
Orchidaceae
Orchids
Organic compounds
Parasites
Photosynthesis
Physiology
Plastids
Protein transport
Proteins
Ribonucleic acid
Ribosomes
RNA
RNA sequencing
RNA-seq
Transcription
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:While photosynthesis is the most notable trait of plants, several lineages of plants (so-called full heterotrophs) have adapted to obtain organic compounds from other sources. The switch to heterotrophy leads to profound changes at the morphological, physiological and genomic levels. Here, we characterize the transcriptomes of three species representing two lineages of mycoheterotrophic plants: orchids (Epipogium aphyllum and Epipogium roseum) and Ericaceae (Hypopitys monotropa). Comparative analysis is used to highlight the parallelism between distantly related fully heterotrophic plants. In both lineages, we observed genome-wide elimination of nuclear genes that encode proteins related to photosynthesis, while systems associated with protein import to plastids as well as plastid transcription and translation remain active. Genes encoding components of plastid ribosomes that have been lost from the plastid genomes have not been transferred to the nuclear genomes; instead, some of the encoded proteins have been substituted by homologs. The nuclear genes of both Epipogium species accumulated nucleotide substitutions twice as rapidly as their photosynthetic relatives; in contrast, no increase in the substitution rate was observed in H. monotropa. Full heterotrophy leads to profound changes in nuclear gene content. The observed increase in the rate of nucleotide substitutions is lineage specific, rather than a universal phenomenon among non-photosynthetic plants.
ISSN:1471-2164
1471-2164
DOI:10.1186/s12864-018-4968-3