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Published Online July 15, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1100671

Reports

Submitted on May 25, 2004
Accepted on July 6, 2004

Host-to-Parasite Gene Transfer in Flowering Plants: Phylogenetic Evidence from Malpighiales

Charles C. Davis 1* and Kenneth J. Wurdack 2

1 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2287, USA.
2 Department of Botany and Laboratories of Analytical Biology, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Charles C. Davis , E-mail: chdavis{at}umich.edu

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between sexually unrelated species has recently been documented for higher plants, but mechanistic explanations for HGTs have remained speculative. We show that a parasitic relationship may facilitate HGT between flowering plants. The endophytic parasites Rafflesiaceae are placed in the diverse order Malpighiales. Our multigene phylogenetic analyses of Malpighiales show that mitochrodrial (matR) and nuclear loci (18S rDNA and PHYC) place Rafflesiaceae in Malpighiales, perhaps near Ochnaceae/Clusiaceae. Mitochondrial nad1B-C, however, groups them within Vitaceae, sister to their obligate host, Tetrastigma. These discordant phylogenetic hypotheses strongly suggest that part of the mitochondrial genome in Rafflesiaceae was acquired via HGT from their hosts.


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