Genomic-scale exchange of mRNA between a parasitic plant and its hosts

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1253122
• Publication Date: 2014-08-14T18:25:21Z
• Authors: Gunjune Kim; Megan L. LeBlanc; Eric K. Wafula; Claude W. dePamph...; James H. Westwood
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences

Strangleweed shares too much information

Because RNA normally functions within an individual cell, we generally think that we keep our RNAs to ourselves. Kim et al. now show that the parasitic dodder plant breaks that rule. When dodder attacks a host plant, it opens up a conduit through which messenger and perhaps other regulatory RNAs are exchanged between parasite and host. Because a single dodder plant can attack multiple hosts, such exchanges may underlie instances of genes transferring between species.

Science , this issue p. 808