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The plant, Virectaria stellata, was identified at three sandstone sites in Guinea after botanists noticed its unusual star-shaped hairs and traced their origin to possible gene transfer rather than ordinary mutation.<\/p>\n
Botanical surveys in 2019 targeted Guinea\u2019s sandstone escarpments while teams mapped sites for national plant conservation planning.<\/p>\n
The work was led by botanist Faya Julien Simbiano at Universit\u00e9 Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry (UGANC<\/a>).<\/p>\n His research focuses on documenting Guinea\u2019s rare cliff plants, while partners at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew<\/a>) handle global comparisons.<\/p>\n Researchers recognized the plant as a new Virectaria species when its flowers and fruits matched the genus but not known species.<\/p>\n Specimens came from For\u00e9cariah and Kindia prefectures, and UGANC teams collected flowering shoots on November 1, 2019 and later dates.<\/p>\n Mapping those collections showed the species stays local, a pattern common for plants tied to rare rock habitats.<\/p>\n Star-shaped hairs<\/p>\n Microscopes revealed stellate hairs, star-like plant<\/a> hairs with many arms, covering the stems, leaves, and flowers.<\/p>\n \u201cVirectaria stellata has stellate hairs, recorded here for the first time in the family Rubiaceae,\u201d said Simbiano.<\/p>\n Because the Rubiaceae family lacks this hair type, the finding pushed the team to ask how it appeared.<\/p>\n Plant surfaces often grow trichomes, tiny hairs made from skin cells, to manage heat, water, and pests.<\/p>\n On exposed rock, these outgrowths trap a thin layer of air, which slows evaporation from the leaf surface.<\/p>\n That protective effect could help the species survive long dry spells, yet it does not explain the unusual branching.<\/p>\n Virectaria stellata\u2018s plant family<\/p>\n Several Acanthaceae, a plant family that includes Barleria, carry stellate hairs with one arm much longer.<\/p>\n The paper points to Barleria species in Guinea whose hair microstructure resembles the arms seen on the Virectaria stellata species.<\/p>\n Similarity alone can mislead, because unrelated plants<\/a> sometimes evolve matching traits when they face the same stresses.<\/p>\n The researchers suspect horizontal gene transfer, DNA moving between species without sex, as a reason for the strange hair architecture.<\/p>\n In plants, bacteria can insert genes into cells, and that DNA can persist if it reaches seeds or pollen.<\/p>\n Cultivated sweet potato already carries bacterial DNA in its genome<\/a>, showing the process can happen in nature.<\/p>\n Parasites can trade genes<\/p>\n Some plant parasites connect directly to a host\u2019s tissues, creating shared channels where genetic material can slip across.<\/p>\n Transcriptome analyses<\/a>, the RNA readout of active genes, found dozens of gene transfers in parasitic Orobanchaceae, using gene family trees as evidence.<\/p>\n Because the Virectaria stellata species is not parasitic, the route for any borrowed genes remains uncertain.<\/p>\n Mitochondria show another route<\/p>\n In some cases, organelles swap DNA when plants grow close together, especially where stems wound and tissues touch.<\/p>\n A study<\/a> of Amborella trichopoda reported a mitochondrial genome packed with foreign DNA, likely acquired through mitochondrial fusion.<\/p>\n That kind of exchange usually involves organelle DNA, so it may not explain a hair trait controlled by nuclear genes.<\/p>\n Hair branching needs many genes<\/p>\n Hair cells in Arabidopsis thaliana helped scientists track genes that control when a single cell branches during growth.<\/p>\n Mutations<\/a> in at least five genes can change trichome growth and branching, showing that shape depends on several genetic switches.<\/p>\n If many genes must change at once to build stellate hairs, researchers need stronger evidence than appearance alone.<\/p>\n Looking for a near relative<\/p>\n A specimen collected on September 25, 2019 lacked stellate hairs but otherwise looked strikingly similar to the species.<\/p>\n Collectors found that plant<\/a> about 56 miles north of the known sites, and its longest hairs were transparent and spiralled.<\/p>\n That mix of traits could mark an ancestor or a separate species, so genetic sampling across Guinea becomes essential.<\/p>\n How to test gene transfer<\/p>\n Genomic sequencing can compare the species to close relatives, and RBG Kew collections help choose those relatives for testing.<\/p>\n Researchers build phylogenetic trees, DNA family trees used to track ancestry, and compare them across genes to spot conflicts.<\/p>\n Even then, the team must rule out lab contamination and independent evolution before calling the case true gene transfer.<\/p>\n Living on vertical sandstone<\/p>\n Vertical sandstone walls in Guinea hold small soil pockets, and the species grows where cracks offer shade or sun.<\/p>\n Field notes place populations between 1,476 and 2,986 feet, where roots wedge into rock and tap brief runoff.<\/p>\n Such narrow niches can produce endemic species quickly, yet the same isolation also limits how far seeds can spread.<\/p>\n Lessons from Virectaria stellata<\/p>\n Conservation reviewers estimated the known range at about 47 square miles, and they did not report major threats.<\/p>\n Dry-season fires lit by herders can scorch plants<\/a> near the cliff base, but buds on stems often resprout.<\/p>\n Least Concern is only a snapshot, so UGANC and RBG Kew still plan follow-up checks as mining and climate stress expand.<\/p>\n Taken together, the evidence links an odd hair trait in the species to the broader story of gene movement.<\/p>\n Genomes from Virectaria and nearby Barleria will decide whether the case reflects real transfer or another path to the same form.<\/p>\n The study is published in Webbia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image credit: University of Florence<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On sheer rock walls in West Africa, a small, unassuming plant carries a genetic trait that does not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,9888,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-plants","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}