This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Thursday 18 March 2021
Gene Dispenser
Sapria himalayana (a relative of the world's largest flower, Rafflesia arnoldi) is a parasitic plant, taking its nutriment from host vines (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/17/sapria-stinking-parasitic-plant-another-odd-feature-lost-genes). Like Rafflesia, it is only obvious, when it produces a large plate-like flower, looking and smelling like carrion. This rotting flesh impersonation serves to attract flies, which help with pollination. Sapria has none of the components you would associate with a typical plant. More remarkably, it has also dispensed with almost 44% of the genes normally found in a plant. As Sapria doesn't engage in photosynthesis, it has even eliminated all the remnants of chloroplasts. Other parasitic plants also junk genes but Sapria is currently the most extreme case.
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