"Plants that Eat Plants: Evolutionary and Functional Genomics of Parasitic Plants," will be presented by Claude dePamphilis of Penn State University at 4 p.m., Nov. 19 in E103 Beadle Center. The seminar is free and open to the public.
Although most plants are autotrophs, a surprising number of plants have evolved an ability to tap into the vascular tissue of other species and display heterotrophic feeding, resulting in some of the strangest plants in the world. dePamphilis will provide a brief overview of parasitic plant evolution and their substantial impacts in agricultural and natural ecosystems.
Most of his talk will focus on the parasitic Orobanchaceae that display the wide range of parasitic ability for any plant family, and are being intensely studied using genomic and transcriptomic approaches. Large, multissue transcriptome studies have allowed researchers to identify clues to the genetic origins or parasitism, genes that are important to the parasitic process and developing approaches to influence the host-parasite interaction. Gene duplication and regulatory neofunctionalization of genes recruited from root and floral functions have played been especially important in the origin of parasitic feeding.
The Beadle Center is located at 1901 Vine Street. The complete schedule of seminars may be found at http://biotech.unl.edu/.