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VELAMMAL VIDHYASHRAM
MAMBAKKAM

ALL INDIA SENIOR SCHOOL

CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION
BIOLOGY
INVESTIGATORY PROJECT REPORT
2021-2022
GENE THEFT BY THE PLANT PARASITES

NAME: ARAVINDHAN.B

CLASS: SEC:

ROLL NO:

GROUP: Bio-Mathematics
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BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this BIOLOGY Investigatory Project on the

topic, “GENE THEFT BY THE PLANT PARASITES” has been
completed by ARAVINDHAN.B of class XII (BIOLOGY WITH
MATHS), Roll number at Velammal
Vidhyashram, Mambakkam for the partial fulfillment of this
project as a part of All India Senior School Certificate Examination-
CBSE, New Delhi for the academic Year 2021 – 2022.

DATE: ………………………….

Signature of the Principal Signature of the guide

Name: Mr.ARULKUMAR R Name: Mr.Rajkumar A

______________________________________________________________________________________
Submitted for AISSCE 2021-2022, BIOLOGY Practical Examination on

………………..

Signature of Signature of
Internal Examiner External Examiner
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

“The success of any project depends largely on people

associated with it.”

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the

enthusiasm of all these personalities. I hereby express my
heartfelt thanks to our Senior Principal Mr.R.ARULKUMAR for
having given this opportunity to do the project and for his
constant encouragement.

I extend my sincere gratitude to my biology teacher Mrs. Mathura

for the valuable guidance offered to me. Her whole-hearted
encouragement and constant stimulant inspiration and advice
enabled me to complete the project successfully.

I am also thankful to all our teachers and non-Teachers for their

help during my course of study. I take this opportunity to express
my sincere thanks to my parents for their encouragement and
support.

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INDEX

S.NO. TOPIC PAGE

NO.
1. Bonafide certificate 2

2. Acknowledgment 3

3. Introduction 5

I. Genes 7

II. Cell cycle in plants 11

III. Parasitic Plants 13

IV. Types of parasitic plants 14

V. Gene Theft 17

VI. Gene Theft in Sapria Himalayana 20

VII. Conclusion 24

4. Bibliography 25
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INTRODUCTION

 Horizontal gene transfer has been postulated to occur

between crops to co-occurring parasitic plants, but empirical

evidence has been lacking. After a brief period of

experimentation and analysis, a team led by Ken Shirasu of

the RIKEN Plant Science Center, Yokohama, has

acknowledged that there is a striking degree of gene loss in

certain plant species and published evidence for nuclear

gene transfer between host and parasite plant species.

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 This project is solely dedicated to provide a clear picture and

to have a better understanding in the gene theft of plant

parasites, by defining every aspect of this process, from the

scratch.

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I) GENES:

 Genes are functional units of heredity as they are made of

DNA. The chromosome is made of DNA containing many
genes. Every gene comprises of the particular set of
instructions for a particular function or protein-coding.
Speaking in usual terms, genes are responsible for heredity.

 There are about 30000 genes in each cell of the human body.
DNA present in the gene comprises only 2 percent of the
genome. Many studies have been made on the same that
found the location of nearly 13000 genes on each of the
chromosomes.
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 William Bateson introduced the term genetics in the year

1905. Later, Wilhelm Johannes was the first one who coined
the term GENE in 1909. He was a Danish botanist. He named
it as Gene to symbolize hereditary.
 Annotation of the first few complete plant genomes has
revealed that plants have many genes. For Arabidopsis, over
26,500 gene loci have been predicted, whereas for rice, the
number adds up to 41,000. Recent analysis of the poplar
genome suggests more than 45,000 genes, and partial
sequence data from Medicago and Lotus also suggest that
these plants contain more than 40,000 genes. Nevertheless,
estimations suggest that ancestral angiosperms had no more
than 12,000-14,000 genes. One explanation for the large
increase in gene number during angiosperm evolution is
gene duplication. It has been shown previously that the
retention of duplicates following small- and large-scale
duplication events in plants is substantial. Taking into
account the function of genes that have been duplicated, we
are now beginning to understand why many plant genes
might have been retained, and how their retention might be
linked to the typical lifestyle of plants.
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 Plant gene expression is controlled by pieces of DNA called

promoters placed at the front of the coding sequence of the
gene. Most promoters only turn the gene on when it is
needed, either during development or for some special
activity of its cell. Some genes are turned on during seed
development or germination, whereas other genes are
turned on only when photosynthesis is active or in specific
tissues such as the leaves, stem, or roots.
 Plant gene expression is controlled by pieces of DNA called
promoters placed at the front of the coding sequence of the
gene. Most promoters only turn the gene on when it is
needed, either during development or for some special
activity of its cell. Some genes are turned on during seed
development or germination, whereas other genes are
turned on only when photosynthesis is active or in specific
tissues such as the leaves, stem, or roots.
 Genes responsible for protecting the plant during
environmental stress are therefore only active during times
of stress. As knowledge of plant genomics has advanced,
many promoters have been discovered that act solely in
specific tissues or conditions. Finding the right promoter to
activate the beneficial gene within the crop plant is therefore
just as important as finding the gene itself.
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II) CELL CYCLE IN PLANTS:

 Cell cycle amazingly follows a regular timing mechanism.

Most eukaryotic cells live according to an internal clock, that
is, they proceed through a sequence of phases, called the cell
cycle. During the cell cycle DNA is duplicated during the
synthesis(S) phase and the copies are distributed to the
daughter cells during mitotic(M) phase. Most growing plant
and animal cells take 10-20 hours to double in number and
some duplicate at a much slower rate.
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 A multi cellular organism usually starts its life as a single cell

(zygote). The multiplication of this single cell and its
descendants determine the growth and development of the
organism and this is achieved by cell division. Cell division is
a complex process by which cellular material is equally
divided between daughter cells. Cell division in living things
are of three kinds. They are,

1. Amitosis

2. Mitosis

3. Meiosis.

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III) PARASITIC PLANTS:

A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its

nutritional requirement from another living plant. They make up
about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome.
All parasitic plants have modified roots, called haustoria, which
penetrate the host plant, connecting them to the conductive
system – either the xylem, the phloem, or both.

For example, plants like Striga or Rhinanthus connect only to the

xylem, via xylem bridges. Alternately, plants like Cuscuta and
Orobanche connect only to the phloem of the host.

This provides them with the ability to extract water and nutrients
from the host. Parasitic plants are classified depending as to the
location where the parasitic plant latches onto the host and the
amount of nutrients it requires. Some parasitic plants are able to
locate their host plants by detecting chemicals in the air or soil
given off by host shoots or roots, respectively. About 4,500
species of parasitic plant in approximately 20 families of
flowering plants are known.

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IV) TYPES OF PARASITIC PLANTS:

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Parasitic plants are characterized as follows:

a. Obligate parasite – a parasite that cannot complete its life cycle

without a host. (e.g.) Vespula austriaca

b. Facultative parasite – a parasite that can complete its life cycle

independent of a host. (e.g.) Family members of the genus
Armillaria.

c. Stem parasite – a parasite that attaches to the host stem. (e.g.)

Cuscuta well known as Dodder, Amarbel, Akash bel

d. Root parasite – a parasite that attaches to the host root. (e.g.)

Rafflesia, Cistanche and Striga

e. Hemiparasite – a plant parasitic under natural conditions, but

photosynthetic to some degree. (e.g.) Mistletoe

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Rafflesia arnoldii
This delightful organism is actually an obligate parasite and cannot
photosynthesize on its own. In fact, 100% of its unpleasantness is fueled with
nutrients it steals from the roots of neighboring Tetrastigma vines.

Dodder (Cuscuta sp.)

Dodder plants are aggressive and use root-like organs called haustoria to
penetrate the stems of their hosts and siphon off their water and nutrients,
often to the point of host-death. Given that dodder species have little to no
chlorophyll with which to make their own nutrients.
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Dwarf Mistletoe
Dwarf mistletoes employ haustoria to exploit their hosts’ vascular tissues and
do little to no photosynthesis of their own.

Australian Christmas tree

A tall and beautiful flowering tree, the Australian Christmas tree (Nuytsia
floribunda) is an elegant parasitic plant. Acts as facultative parasite and
steals water from its neighbors.
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V) GENE THEFT:

 The exchange of genes between non-mating species—a

process known as horizontal gene transfer (HGT)—is
common in bacteria but seemed confined to mitochondrial
genes in plants. HGT between plants and microbes has also
been documented.
 Now, a team led by Ken Shirasu of the RIKEN Plant Science
Center, Yokohama, has published evidence for nuclear gene
transfer between host and parasite plant species1.
Mitochondrial genes are those of cellular organ-like
structures, whereas nuclear genes belong to the cell’s
nucleus and are therefore part of the plant’s main genome.
 The findings mean that, in principle, parasitic plants could
adapt rapidly by acquiring useful genes from their hosts
rather than having to evolve new functions de novo—just as
today’s plant breeders genetically modify crop plants by
introducing into them genes for desirable traits, such as
disease resistance, from other species.
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 As a model system, the researchers focused on the flowering

plant known as purple witchweed (Striga hermonthica); it is
a root parasite of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), rice (Oryza
sativa) and other cereals. The species is a major agricultural
menace responsible for devastating crop infestations in
subtropical Africa.
 Sorghum and rice are members of the grass family. Like all
other witchweed hosts, they are monocots, meaning that
their seedlings have just one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. In
contrast, the seedlings of witchweed have two cotyledons,
making it a dicot. “We reasoned that the discovery of
monocot-specific genes in witchweed would provide
compelling evidence for the existence of nuclear HGT
between host and parasite plant species,” says Shirasu.
 By screening 17,000 witchweed genes, the researchers
identified one gene, ShContig9483, similar to genes in
sorghum and rice, but not present in parasitic or non-
parasitic relatives (eudicots) of witchweed. An evolutionary
‘gene tree’ built by the researchers, using DNA sequences
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of ShContig9483 and related protein-coding genes, revealed

that the position of ShContig9483 in the tree is not
consonant with witchweed evolutionary relationships.

 “Our analyses indicate that S. hermonthica most likely

acquired ShContig9483 from sorghum or a related grass
species, and that the transfer event was relatively recent,”
Shirasu notes. “Although we do not, as yet, know the
function of the protein encoded by ShContig9483, ours is the
first clear evidence of nuclear HGT between host and
parasite plant species,” he adds.
 The researchers believe that other similar cases of nuclear
HGT await discovery and that HGT may be a powerful force
in plant genome evolution, facilitating rapid adaption
through the acquisition of new genes.

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VI) GENE THEFT IN SAPRIA HIMALAYANA:

 The species is found in Southeast Asia and its mottled red
and white flower is about the size of a dinner plate. (It's
more famous cousin, Rafflesia Arnoldi, produces blossoms
nearly three feet in diameter, the largest in the world.)
 The genetic analysis revealed an astonishing degree of gene
loss and surprising amounts of gene theft from its ancient
and modern hosts. These findings bring unique perspectives
into the number and kind of genes it takes to be an
endoparasite (an organism that is completely dependent on
its host for all nutrients), along with offering new insights
into how far the genomes of flowering plants can be altered
and still remain functional.
 The analysis sheds light on a species of flowers who's
evolutionary and genomic history is largely unknown
because they lack a traditional body, spend most of their
lives inside their hosts, and lack the machinery to perform
photosynthesis (which keeps most plants alive).
 What struck the group immediately was the striking degree
of gene loss Sapria experienced as they abandoned their
bodies and adapted to become endoparasites.
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 Nearly half of all genes found in most flowering plants are

absent in the Sapria genome. That extent of gene loss is
more than four times the degree of loss in other plant
parasites. Many of the genes lost include what are
considered the key genes responsible for photosynthesis,
which converts light into energy.
 "In many ways, it's a miracle that these plants exist today, let
alone that they seem to have persisted for tens of millions of
years," said Charles Davis, who led the project and is a
professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences and curator of vascular plants in
the Harvard University Herbaria. "They've really jettisoned
many things we identify as a typical plant yet they are
deeply embedded within the plant tree of life."
 At the same time, the data demonstrated an underlying
evolutionary convergence to becoming a parasite because
Sapria and the parasitic plants the researchers compared
them to lost many of the same types of genes despite
evolving separately.
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 "We concluded that there is a common genomic or genetic

roadmap to how plant parasites evolve," said Cai Liming '20,
Ph.D., a researcher at the University of California, Riverside,
who helped lead the study as a graduate student in the Davis
Lab while at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences.
 The scientists also identified dozens of genes that came into
the Sapria genome through a process called horizontal (or
lateral) gene transfer instead of the traditional parent-to-
offspring transmission. Basically, it means Sapria stole this
DNA from their host instead of getting it passed down to
them.
 The researchers then reconstructed the lateral gene
transfers they detected to put together a hidden history of
former hosts going back millions of years.
 They estimate they've sequenced about 40% the genome,
believing that this is the core and that the remaining
portions are likely repeat regions.
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 The research collaboration included scientists from across

the country and around the world, including former
students in the Davis lab and collaborators in Thailand and
Malaysia. Along with Cai, researchers from Harvard included
Timothy Sackton, the director of bioinformatics for the FAS
Informatics Group; Brian Arnold, a former bioscientist with
the group; Danielle Khost, a current bioscientist with the
group; and Claire Hartmann, director of the Bauer Core
Facility.
 The project dates back to 2004. It involved extensive
fieldwork in Thailand and Malaysia and careful logistics to
transport the plants. In the lab, the researchers dissected the
plants and extracted their genetic materials. This involved
its own slew of sensitive protocols, like making sure not to
cross-contaminate genes from the parasite with those of the
host. Researchers said putting together the genome was like
assembling a puzzle that had millions of pieces.
 When it comes to parasites, Rafflesiaceae are the stuff of
nightmares. They have no roots, stems, or leaves of their
own. Instead, they are invisible for most of their life, living
only as a small necklace of cells inside the woody vines of
their host until without warning. They burst out to bloom
some of the largest flowers in the world. Their pungent smell
of rotting meat or fruit attracts carrion flies who help
pollinate these plants, allowing them to produce seeds and
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spread to another unsuspecting host, restarting the whole

cycle.
 Rafflesiaceae represent the most extreme form of parasitism
known as endoparasitism. To those who study these plants,
it's one of the many things that makes them so remarkable .

CONCLUSION:
 "Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from
Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the
mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of
fitness is defined as reproductive success.
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 There are many different ways species change, but most of

them can be described by the idea of natural selection. The
theory of evolution through natural selection was the first
scientific theory that put together evidence of change
through time as well as a mechanism for how it happens.
 Thus, parasitic plants steal genetic material from their host
plants and use the stolen genes to more effectively siphon off
the host’s nutrients for survival and for the continuity of its
species.

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BIBILIOGRAPHY:
▫ Yoshida, S., Maruyama, S., Nozaki, H. & Shirasu, K. Horizontal
gene transfer by the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica.
Science 328, 1128 (2010).
▫ Britannica - Botanical Barbarity.
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▫ AZO life sciences

▫ Greatleap.com
▫ Wikipedia.com

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