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4d ago

Parasitic Plant Study Reveals Vital Plastids Despite Gene Loss and Repeated Island Asexuality

Researchers used phylogenomics to map Balanophora across Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan.

'Balanophora' species are parasitic plants that live underground and emerge above ground only during the flowering season, and some species even reproduce exclusively asexually. This collage shows species studied to establish how the plants of that group relate to each other, how they modified their plastids and how their reproduction fits into their ecology.
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Overview

  • Balanophora plastids retain metabolic roles despite extreme reduction to roughly 20 genes, with more than 700 nucleus-encoded proteins still imported into the organelle.
  • Analyses indicate plastid genome shrinkage occurred in the group’s common ancestor before species diversified, placing this shift early in a lineage dating to the mid-Cretaceous.
  • Reproductive modes vary widely, with facultative agamospermy in some species and obligate asexuality concentrated in island lineages, suggesting repeated evolution of agamospermy.
  • Field sampling and genomic work by teams from OIST, Kobe University, and the University of Taipei underpin the study, published November 26, 2025, in New Phytologist.
  • Host specificity and fragmented habitats make populations conservation-sensitive, with researchers noting protected sites that still face risks from logging and unauthorized collection, and planning biochemical studies to pinpoint plastid products.