Data from: Ancient mitochondrial gene transfer between fungi and the orchids

The mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of plants are known to incorporate
and accumulate DNA from intra- and extracellular donors. Despite the
intimate relationships formed between flowing plants (angiosperms) and
fungi, lengthy fungal-like sequence has not been identified in angiosperm
mitogenomes to date. Here we present multiple lines of evidence
documenting horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between the mitogenomes of
fungi and the ancestors of the orchids, plants that are obligate parasites
of fungi during their early development. We show that the ancestor of the
orchids acquired an approximately 270 bp fungal mitogenomic region
containing three transfer RNA genes. We propose that the short HGT was
later replaced by a second HGT event transferring more than 8 kb and 14
genes from a fungal mitogenome to that of the ancestor of the largest
orchid subfamily, Epidendroideae. Our results represent the first evidence
of genomic-scale HGT between fungal and angiosperm mitogenomes and
demonstrate that the length intergenic spacer regions of angiosperm
mitogenomes can effectively fossilize the genomic remains of ancient,
non-plant organisms.