Parasitic plant with shrunken genome convinces hosts to grow into its own flesh | Hacker News Reader

Parasitic plant with shrunken genome convinces hosts to grow into its own flesh

phys.org

53 pointsPaulHoule17 comments

It's just an opinionated product. If the hosts don't like it, they can always unsubscribe.

> Balanophora induces the vascular system of their host plant to grow into a tuber, forming a unique underground organ with mixed host-parasite tissue. This chimeric tuber is the interface where Balanophora steals nutrients from its host plant.

Cool.

So basically it forces the host to make something like… potatoes? Is it edible? Does it taste good? Is this a new way to engineer random plants to make potatoes for us?

Interesting. I would like an onion potato.

And sour cream, with a sprinkle on steak pepper.

You want to... eat the parasite that convinces its host to grow new weird parts?

Nothing that stops parasites from being tasty or nutritious! Unless it's tapeworms!

I misread it as "Parasitic manager gaslights his team into naming him as the sole inventor on the patent application."

"convinces" = my anthropomorphizing alarm just went off.

"Fools" would have worked better in its place.

I thought you were saying it "convinces" just like your alarm clock "convinces" you to wake up.

I don’t think anyone is confused about the usage, so you’re kinda doing the opposite where you make it sound like a word depicts something so uniquely human that it can’t be used to approximate anything else.

Why 'flesh'? It parasitizes plants.

Plants have flesh

Are you sure?

I keep trying to picture an Uruk Hai yelling “PLANT FLESH” and I’m just not seeing it.

Parasites in general have shrunken genomes.

They don't need everything to function when they can rely on the host to provide. I like the example of Indian Pipe which is a parasitic plant that's "forgotten" how to produce chlorophyll:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_pipe_PDB.JP...

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