Cuscuta pentagona Transcriptome or Gene expression

RNAs are able to move and function between cells of a single plant, but cross-species mRNA transfer is largely unexplored. Cuscuta pentagona (dodder) is a parasitic plant that forms symplastic connections to its host and takes up host mRNAs. We sequenced transcriptomes of Cuscuta growing in association with genetically distinct hosts, Arabidopsis and tomato, to characterize mRNA transfer between species and found that mRNAs move in high numbers and in a bidirectional manner.