RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Large-scale gene losses underlie the genome evolution of parasitic plant Cuscuta australis JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 285593 DO 10.1101/285593 A1 Guiling Sun A1 Yuxing Xu A1 Hui Liu A1 Ting Sun A1 Jingxiong Zhang A1 Christian Hettenhausen A1 Guojing Shen A1 Jinfeng Qi A1 Yan Qin A1 Jing Li A1 Lei Wang A1 Wei Chang A1 Zhenhua Guo A1 Ian T. Baldwin A1 Jianqiang Wu YR 2018 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/12/285593.abstract AB Dodders (Cuscuta spp., Convolvulaceae) are root- and leafless parasitic plants. The physiology, ecology, and evolution of these obligate parasites are poorly understood. A high-quality reference genome of Cuscuta australis was assembled. Our analyses reveal that Cuscuta experienced accelerated molecular evolution, and Cuscuta and the convolvulaceous morning glory (Ipomoea) shared a common whole-genome triplication event before their divergence. C. australis genome harbors 19671 protein-coding genes, and importantly, 11.7% of the conserved orthologs in autotrophic plants are lost in C. australis. Many of these gene loss events likely result from its parasitic lifestyle and the massive changes of its body plan. Moreover, comparison of the gene expression patterns in Cuscuta prehaustoria/haustoria and various tissues of closely related autotrophic plants suggests that Cuscuta haustorium formation requires mostly genes normally involved in root development. The C. australis genome provides important resources for studying the evolution of parasitism, regressive evolution, and evo-devo in plant parasites.