#  Charles Davis cited in The Economist 

 





June 16, 2012

 

 

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*Parasites: A Gene Thief* — Plants of the genus *Rafflesia* are among the oddest on the planet. They have the largest known flowers (up to a metre across) and are parasites, growing on South-East Asian vines of the genus *Tetrastigma*. The latest research, though, shows that *Rafflesia* take more than just nutrients from their hosts. A study by Charles Davis of Harvard and Joshua Rest of Stony Brook University, in New York, just published in BioMed Central Genomics, has shown that at least one species, *Rafflesia cantleyi*, has also snaffled 49 genes from its particular victim, *Tetrastigma rafflesia* (named, like *Rafflesia* itself, after Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and of the London Zoo). The genes in question, which have a wide range of functions, are fully operational and have become integrated into the nuclei of *cantleyi*’s cells. Such gene transfer between species is common in bacteria, but rare in more complex organisms. Yet another curiosity, then, about an already curious vegetable.

[Read more in *The Economist.*](http://www.economist.com/node/21556898)



 

 

 



 

 

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