Rafflesia arnoldiiWIKIPEDIA, MA_SUSKAPlant cells photosynthesize using chloroplasts—small structures that were once free-living bacteria and retain their own DNA. Even when plants lose the ability to photosynthesize, they retain a genome in their plastids, and some scientists have argued that these genes are indispensible.
But two teams have now independently found the first examples of plants whose plastids seem to lack a genome, including a giant rot-scented flower and a group of single-celled algae. Neither case is iron-cast yet, but given the teams’ intense searches, these plants’ plastid genomes are either missing, well-hidden, or can be found only at very low levels.
Jeanmaire Molina from Long Island University and Michael Purugganan from New York University focused on Rafflesia lagascae—a Philippine parasite that does not photosynthesize, and lacks stems, roots, and leaves. The only sign of its existence is a huge red flower, which protrudes from its host vine and looks and smells like rotting flesh.
R. lagascae still has plastid-like structures in its cells but, despite using a variety ...
