UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO, ENRIQUE IBARRA-LACLETTE, CLAUDIA ANAHI PEREZ TORRES, PAULINA LOZANO-SOTOMAYOR
Species: Bladderwort (Utricularia gibba)
Genome size: 82 million base pairs
The small genome of the carnivorous, aquatic bladderwort packs a gene-rich punch that provides the unique plant with many of its special adaptations, according to a study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution in January.
The Utricularia gibba genome contains 28,500 protein-coding genes, roughly the same amount as that of the Norway spruce, even though the spruce’s genome is nearly 250-fold larger. Researchers from the University of Buffalo, the University of Barcelona, and the National Genomics Lab for Biodiversity in Mexico, found evidence that the bladderwort genome had been duplicated three times, suggesting the plant had also undergone massive deletion events, resulting in its compact genome. Unlike many organisms, few of the bladderwort’s genes belong ...
