A reeking, parasitic plant lost its body and much of its genetic code
For most of their lives, plants in the Sapria genus are barely anything — thin ribbons of parasitic cells winding inside vines in Southeast Asian rainforests. They become visible only when they reproduce, bursting from their host as a dinner plate–sized flower that smells like rotting flesh. Now, new research on the genetic instruction book of this rare plant reveals the lengths to which it has gone to become a specialized parasite. The findings, published January 22 in Current Biology, suggest that at least one species of Sapria has lost nearly half of the genes commonly found in othe...
Source: sciencenews.org