The plant is a vampire sucking out the victims of their RNA Bashny.Net

In addition to nutrients and water, the dodder from the host plant need more copies of the host's genes.

Dodder has no leaves, no roots, because it is a true parasite, literally sucking the juices of other plants. It wraps around the host and with a special "sucker"-haustoria pulls out the water with nutrients. But as it turned out, the plant-a vampire is not so limited, researchers from Virginia tech found that dodder else and uses someone else's genes.





It is clear that in a strange plant can be found not only water and sugar, and other biological molecules, including those necessary for the realization of genetic information. Some time ago James Westwood (James Westwood) and his colleagues found that the dodder along with a nutritious juice takes from their owners mRNA, which serves as an information intermediary between genes and velocimeters apparatus. Here, the researchers wanted to find out how much RNA is transferred from plant to plant and is it a pattern, not an accident.

In the experiment dodder "incited" to her two usual hosts, tomato and Arabidopsis. Then analyzed all the RNA, which can be found in the parasite and in the host. As write the authors in Science, despite the fact that RNA molecules have a high sensitivity and easily destroyed, the species barrier they overcame without problems: almost half of the host's mRNA passed into the dodder. This means that thousands of active genes of the host plant worked not only to its rightful owner, but stuck on "vampire". However, from dodder part of the mRNA that goes on whom it is parasitic, that is, the flow of mRNA actually bilateral. (Dodder gives a quarter of its mRNA.) The authors believe that the parasite may somehow weaken the host's defenses, that is, mRNA dodder may be some kind of genetic Trojan horse.

It should, however, emphasize that it is unknown why the parasite needs the RNA copies of the genes of the host. The researchers were able to prove that RNA is the exchange really takes place, and that it is much more intense than you might expect (especially when you consider that about RNA at all nobody thought that it could serve as a means majesticbingo communication). However, the rate of flow of molecules suggests that the measures really worth the host's genes; it remains to understand what.

 

Source: nkj.ru