As G. elata does not perform photosynthesis, it was unsurprising that genes enriched for ‘chloroplast’ and ‘plastid’ annotations were strongly represented among the missing genes (Supplementary Table 28). To further investigate the putative functions of missing genes, we examined genes related to the photosynthetic apparatus, namely Photosystem I, Photosystem II, Cytochrome b6f, Cytochrome C6, ATP synthase, and Rubisco14. Of the 35 nuclear genes coding for photosynthetic apparatus proteins (NEP), only 12 were present in the G. elata genome; this is significantly fewer than in A. thaliana, A. comosus, P. equestris, and D. officinale (Supplementary Tables 28, 29). We assume that these genes were non-functional because their full complements of subunits were not present.