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Reconstructing The Germination Pathway From The Rafflesia Seed Transcriptome, Venkata Siva Sankar Maddu

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae) produces the largest flowers in the world but has no stems, roots, or leaves. It is a holoparasitic angiosperm that derives all its nutrients from its host vine, Tetrastigma. All species are also threatened with extinction, but propagating it has been incredibly challenging. Its germination from seed has never been observed. The thesis aims to reconstruct the germination pathway of Rafflesia from its published seed transcriptome to gain insight into its molecular genetics and understand what germination genes can be stimulated to facilitate infection of its host for ex-situ propagation. The published seed transcriptome of Rafflesia speciosa was …