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. 2019 Apr 8;19(1):87.
doi: 10.1186/s12862-019-1401-8.

Mitochondrial genome evolution in parasitic plants

Athanasios Zervas  1 , Gitte Petersen  2 , Ole Seberg  2
Affiliations

Mitochondrial genome evolution in parasitic plants

Athanasios Zervas et al. BMC Evol Biol. .

Abstract

Background: Parasitic plants rely on their host to cover their nutritional requirements either for their entire life or a smaller part of it. Depending on the level of parasitism, a proportional reduction on the plastid genome has been found. However, knowledge on gene loss and evolution of the mitogenome of parasitic plants is only available for four hemiparasitic Viscum species (Viscaceae), which lack many of the mitochondrial genes, while the remaining genes exhibit very fast molecular evolution rates. In this study, we include another genus, Phoradendron, from the Viscaceae, as well as 10 other hemiparasitic or holoparasitic taxa from across the phylogeny of the angiosperms to investigate how fast molecular evolution works on their mitogenomes, and the extent of gene loss.

Results: Our observations from Viscum were replicated in Phoradendron liga, whereas the remaining parasitic plants in the study have a complete set of the core mitochondrial genes and exhibit moderate or only slightly raised substitution rates compared to most autotrophic taxa, without any statistically significant difference between the different groups (autotrophs, hemiparasites and holoparasites). Additionally, further evidence is provided for the placement of Balanophoraceae within the order Santalales, while the exact placement of Cynomoriaceae still remains elusive.

Conclusions: We examine the mitochondrial gene content of 11 hemiparasitic and holoparasitic plants and confirm previous observations in Viscaceae. We show that the remaining parasitic plants do not have significantly higher substitution rates than autotrophic plants in their mitochondrial genes. We provide further evidence for the placement of Balanophoraceae in the Santalales.

Keywords: Balanophoraceae; Evolution; Mitogenome; Parasitic plants; Parasitism; Phylogeny; Substitution rates; Viscaceae.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Protein-gene content of 38 angiosperms, including the 11 parasitic plants analysed in this study. Dark grey boxes indicate presence of a gene, light grey boxes indicate pseudogenes or partial genes, and white boxes indicate absence of the gene. Taxa in green show hemiparasitic and taxa in light red show holoparasitic plants
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Phylogenetic tree of the 38 angiosperms included in the study. Branch length shows substitution rates, while bootstraps support values are shown on the base of each branch. Taxa in green show hemiparasitic and taxa in red show holoparasitic plants
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Barplot with the substitution rates of the mitochondrial genes of the 38 taxa in analysis 1. Taxa in green show hemiparasitic and taxa in red show holoparasitic plants
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Analysis of variance of the substitution rates in the large data set of the mitochondrial genes (analysis 4)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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