4 ms·

Relatedly, some animals can steal chloroplasts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoplasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoplasty

• a_bonobo 3y ago
  and to complete the circle, many plants - usually the parasites and the carnivorous plants - have lost some or most of their chloroplasts. Rafflesia (a parasite) might have lost the entire chloroplast: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969568/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969568/ Here's one 'in the middle' that lost a bunch of genes from the chloroplasts: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0058747 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
  • culi 3y ago
    let's keep it going because "parasites" are fascinating. Dodder plants are usually generalized obligate plant parasites. Dodders have "stolen" at least 108 genes from various plants its parasitized. Bonus, dodder plants also seem to be able to double as a sort of above-ground mycorrhizal network, allowing plants (even across species) to communicate with each other and send warning signals about pests/stressors/etc
  • phito 3y ago
    I'm not aware of any carnivorous plant that lost chloroplasts, could you share which species it is?
    • a_bonobo 3y ago
      Only parts; Drosera (sundews) usually lost all of their ndh genes https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/11/2/472/5284917 https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/11/2/472/5284917