Utricularia gibba

Utricularia gibba, commonly known as the humped or floating

Utricularia gibba
bladderwort, is a small, mat-forming species of carnivorous aquatic
bladderwort.[3][2] It is found on all continents except Antarctica.

U. gibba has an exceptionally small genome for a plant, despite having a

typical number of genes. The sequencing of its DNA revealed only 3% non-
coding material.[4]

Contents
Description
Distribution and habitat
Genetic efficiency
Cultivation
See also
References
External links

Description
Conservation status
Utricularia gibba is an aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus
Utricularia, or bladderworts. The specific epithet gibba is Latin for "hump" or
"swelling" – a reference to the inflated base of the lower lip of the corolla.[5]
It is a small- to medium-sized aquatic plant that can either be affixed to the
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
substrate in shallow water or free-floating in the water column, however it
will likely flower more if supported by a substrate beneath shallow water. It Scientific classification
forms mats of criss-crossing, branching, thread-like stolons, each growing to Kingdom: Plantae
approximately 20 cm (8 in) long or longer and 0.2–1 mm thick. What are
sometime described as leaves or leaf-like organs – the actual distinction is
Clade: Tracheophytes
difficult in the reduced morphology – are numerous and scattered along the Clade: Angiosperms
length of the stolons and are 0.5–1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) long with a very short
Clade: Eudicots
dichotomous branching pattern toward the tip of anywhere from one to eight
branches but usually not more than four. The bladder traps take the place of Clade: Asterids
some of these distal branches on the leaf-like structures. The traps are ovoid Order: Lamiales
and are attached to the leaf-like structure by a short stalk; each trap is 1–
Family: Lentibulariaceae
2.5 mm long and has two primary setiform branched appendages on top and
some smaller appendages surrounded the entrance to the trap. The appendages Genus: Utricularia
are the trigger that sets the trap off and vacuums the prey that touched it into
Subgenus: Utricularia subg.
the bladder to be digested.[6]
Utricularia
Inflorescences are erect and typically emerge from the water to about 20 cm Section: Utricularia sect.
(8 in) tall, though in some cases they can be submerged and produce Utricularia
cleistogamous flowers. Inflorescences can produce anywhere from one to
Species: U. gibba
twelve flowers but it is unusual to see anything other than two to six flowers
per inflorescence. Individual flowers are yellow, often with reddish-brown Binomial name
nerves, and are split into two lips: the upper lip is almost circular and weakly
Utricularia gibba
separated into three lobes while the lower lip is slightly smaller, also circular,
L.
and has a rounded, bilobed swelling in the center. The spur is narrowly conical
or cylindrical and curves down below the flower, varying in length from being Synonyms
just shorter than to noticeably longer than the lower lip. Utricularia gibba will
Utricularia exoleta R. Br.[2]
flower throughout the year whenever conditions are favorable.[6] Flowers,
specifically the corolla, vary in size across this species' large distribution from
0.8 to 1.5 cm (0.3 to 0.6 in).[7]

The diploid chromosome number for U. gibba is 2n = 28.[6]

Utricularia gibba is listed as a weed on the New Zealand National Pest Plant Accord.

Distribution and habitat

Utricularia gibba has a vast geographic range and occurs naturally in the United States (all states except Alaska and the Rocky
mountain states), Canada, Central and South America, Spain, Israel, most of Africa, most of Asia including China and Japan,
New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania and the North Island of New Zealand.[5] It grows in ponds and lakes or shallow water in
ditches, pools, bogs, swamps, and marshes that may be still or slowly flowing. It can sometimes be found growing in deep water
but will not flower unless the inflorescences are supported near the surface by living or dead vegetation.[6] The waters in which it
grows are typically poor in available phosphorus and nitrogen. It satisfies its nutrient requirements by capturing and digesting
small aquatic prey – usually small invertebrates – in its bladder structures.[8] Utricularia gibba is typically found growing at
lower altitudes but can be found as high as 2,500 m (8,200 ft).[6]

Genetic efficiency
In 2013, the genome of U. gibba was sequenced. At only 82 megabases, the genome is exceptionally small for a multicellular
plant.[8] Despite its size, the genome accommodates 28,500 genes – more than plants with much larger genomes.[8] The main
difference between other plant genomes and that of U. gibba is a drastic reduction in non-coding DNA.[4] Only 3% of the plant's
DNA is not part of a gene or material that controls those genes, in contrast to human DNA which is 98.5% non-coding.[9]
Retrotransposons, which dominate the DNA of most flowering plants, make up just 2.5% of U. gibba's DNA.[8] The discovery
casts doubt on the idea that repetitive, non-coding DNA, popularly known as junk DNA, is necessary for life.[10] "At least for a
plant, junk DNA really is just junk – it's not required", declares study co-author Victor Albert.[9] T. Ryan Gregory who studies the
evolution of genome sizes said "The study further challenges simplistic accounts of genome biology that assume functions for
most or all DNA sequences, without addressing the enormous variability in genome size among plants and animals."[8]

Utricularia gibba and the tomato split from a common ancestor approximately 87 million years ago. Since that time, both plants
have experienced episodes of whole genome duplication (WGD) in which the plants' DNA content doubled in size.[10]
Utricularia gibba experienced at least three cycles of increasing genome size.[8] Since then, it has lost most unneeded DNA,
unlike the tomato, and now has a genome only a tenth as long as the tomato's.[10]

Compared to Arabidopsis, the introns of Utricularia gibba are somewhat fewer in number per gene, and conserved cis-acting
elements of its promoters are compressed.[4] Most critical genes have returned to single copy status.[4] However, the
mitochondrial and plastid genomes of U. gibba do not appear to be compressed relative to those of other angiosperms.[4] The
compression of its nuclear DNA is thought to have occurred via both numerous microdeletions and some large-scale recombinant
deletions.[4] It is hypothesized that a "sloppy" recombination process has caused unused material to be deleted over time.[8] The
presence of numerous GC-rich sequences throughout the nuclear genome of U. gibba is considered to have created a molecular
mechanistic bias in favor of deletions, but this does not preclude the presence of a selection pressure to preserve such deletions.[4]
Selection pressures in favor of conserving energy or conserving phosphorus have been suggested to be operative in the reduction
of the nuclear genome size of U. gibba.[8] Trap formation is induced in U. gibba by low phosphorus but not low nitrogen,[4]
indicating that phosphorus availability is more limiting in its environment. It had also been previously proposed that an increased
mutation rate due to greater environmental mutagen exposure could have increased natural selection for loss of unneeded DNA,
but no evidence for this was found in the relative mutational diversities of U. gibba and Arabidopsis.[4]

It is unclear how the plant has managed to do this. It seems to have actually increased its genome first, in three successive rounds
of whole genome duplication.[11] It is possible that it did this in order to avoid deletion of important genes before reducing its
total DNA. It is still uncertain why this happened but it is possible because the plant lives in phosphorus poor environment and
there is selective pressure to reduce the amount of DNA.[11]

Cultivation
Utricularia gibba has the reputation of being one of the easier aquatic bladderworts to grow, often being described as a weed in
cultivation. In his 1998 book The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants, Peter D'Amato advised that successful
cultivation could be achieved with U. gibba floating in a small cup or bowl, within waterlogged peat, or even among the water-
filled trays of other plants. It can also easily be grown in aquaria.[7][12]

See also
List of Utricularia species

References
1. NatureServe (2013). "Utricularia gibba" (https://iucnredlist.org/details/164362/0). IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species. Version 2014.3. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
2. R. Rowe & E. A. Brown. "New South Wales Flora Online: Utricularia gibba" (http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-
bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Utricularia~gibba). Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney,
Australia.
3. "Utricularia gibba" (https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=UTGI). Natural Resources Conservation Service
PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
4. Ibarra-Laclette, E.; Lyons, E.; Hernández-Guzmán, G.; Pérez-Torres, C. A.; Carretero-Paulet, L.; Chang, T.-H.;
Lan, T.; Welch, A. J.; Juárez, M. J. A.; Simpson, J.; Fernández-Cortés, A.; Arteaga-Vázquez, M.; Góngora-
Castillo, E.; Acevedo-Hernández, G.; Schuster, S. C.; Himmelbauer, H.; Minoche, A. E.; Xu, S.; Lynch, M.;
Oropeza-Aburto, A.; Cervantes-Pérez, S. A.; de Jesús Ortega-Estrada, M.a; Cervantes-Luevano, J. I.; Michael, T.
P.; Mockler, T.; Bryant, D.s; Herrera-Estrella, A.; Albert, V. A.; Herrera-Estrella, L. (2013-05-12). "Architecture and
evolution of a minute plant genome" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4972453). Nature. 498
(7452): 94–98. doi:10.1038/nature12132 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature12132). ISSN 0028-0836 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/issn/0028-0836). PMC 4972453 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4972453).
PMID 23665961 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23665961).
5. Bruce Salmon (2001) "Carnivorous Plants of New Zealand" Ecosphere Publications
6. Taylor, Peter. 1989. The genus Utricularia - a taxonomic monograph. Kew Bulletin Additional Series XIV: London.
ISBN 978-0-947643-72-0
7. Schnell, Donald. 2002. Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada. Timber Press: Portland, Oregon.
pp. 369–370. ISBN 0-88192-540-3
 8. Ed Young (May 12, 2013). "Flesh-Eating Plant Cleaned Junk From Its Minimalist Genome" (http://phenomena.nat
ionalgeographic.com/2013/05/12/flesh-eating-plant-cleaned-junk-minimalist-genome/). National Geography.
Retrieved May 14, 2013.
9. "Worlds Record Breaking Plant: Deletes its Noncoding "Junk" DNA" (http://www.designntrend.com/articles/4291/2
0130512/worlds-record-breaking-plant-deletes-noncoding-junk-dna.htm). Design & Trend. May 12, 2013.
Retrieved May 13, 2013.
10. Gabrielsen, Paul (12 May 2013). "ScienceShot: Carnivorous Plant Ejects Junk DNA" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20130620171014/http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/05/scienceshot-carnivorous-plant-ej.html).
Science NOW. AAAS. Archived from the original (http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/05/scienceshot-c
arnivorous-plant-ej.html) on 20 June 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
11. Dawkins, Richard; Wong, Yan (2016). The Ancestor's Tale. ISBN 978-0544859937.
12. D'Amato, Peter. 1998. The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley,
California. p. 231. ISBN 0-89815-915-6

External links
Utricularia gibba (http://www.westafricanplants.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=13&preview=true&searc
hTextMenue=Utricularia+gibba&search=Wikitemplate) in West African plants – A Photo Guide. (http://www.westaf
ricanplants.senckenberg.de/)

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