Great, wonderful, wacky things can come in small genomic packages.<\/p>\n
That's one lesson to be learned from the carnivorous bladderwort, a plant whose tiny genome turns out to be a jewel box full of evolutionary treasures. <\/p>\n
Called Utricularia gibba by scientists, the bladderwort is a marvel of nature. It lives in an aquatic environment. It has no recognizable roots. It boasts floating, thread-like branches, along with miniature traps that use vacuum pressure to capture prey. <\/p>\n
A new study in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution breaks down the plant's genetic makeup, and finds a fascinating story. <\/p>\n
According to the research, the bladderwort houses more genes than several well-known plant species, such as grape, coffee or papaya -- despite having a much smaller genome. <\/p>\n
This incredibly compact architecture results from a history of \"rampant\" DNA deletion in which the plant added and then eliminated genetic material at a very fast pace, says University at Buffalo Professor of Biological Sciences Victor Albert, who led the study. <\/p>\n
\"The story is that we can see that throughout its history, the bladderwort has habitually gained and shed oodles of DNA,\" he says. <\/p>\n
\"With a shrunken genome,\" he adds, \"we might expect to see what I would call a minimal DNA complement: a plant that has relatively few genes -- only the ones needed to make a simple plant. But that's not what we see.\" <\/p>\n
A unique and elaborate genetic architecture <\/p>\n
In contrast to the minimalist plant theory, Albert and his colleagues found that U. gibba has more genes than some plants with larger genomes, including grape, as already noted, and Arabidopsis, a commonly studied flower. <\/p>\n
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\nCarnivorous plant packs big wonders into tiny genome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"