The IPPS seminars start again on April 5, 2023 at 4 PM cet

After a break, in which we had the 16th World Congress on Parasitic Plants in Nairobi, Kenya, the Executive Committee of the IPPS is happy to announce we are resuming our monthly IPPS seminar series, starting Wednesday 5 April. As with the previous series, talks will be every 1st Wednesday of the month at 4:00 […]

From Haustorium 82: Natural super glue from mistletoe berries

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI) and McGill University in Canada discovered strong adhesive properties of white-berry mistletoe. The mistletoe berry’s flexible fibers adhere to both skin and cartilage as well as to various synthetic materials and could find application in many fields, such as wound sealant […]

From Haustorium 82: Parasitic plants. Should gorillas be concerned?

Orobanche minor, small broomrape, is found throughout much of East Africa and parasitizes a diversity of hosts. Of particular interest in Rwanda is its parasitism of Peucedanum linderi, wild celery, a main food of mountain gorillas. Small broomrape parasitizing wild celery in a garden of plants favored by mountain gorillas. The broomrape is just above […]

How the mistletoe infects a host tree?

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A research that talks about the molecular infective process of the Psittacanthus calyculathus mistletoe on mesquite trees. Lignocellulolytic enzymes, proteins, phytohormones and proteases involved in the infectious process were analyzed. It is an open access article with freely downloadable at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/12/3/464 […]

Publication

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A ‘Perspective’ article entitled ‘Are root parasitic broomrapes still a good target for bioherbicide control?’ has been recently published in Pest Management Science, with me as the author. It is an open-access article freely downloadable at the following address: https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.7360 This paper was presented orally at the workshop ‘Overcoming the barriers to adoption of microbial […]

Phenotypic diversity in pre- and post-attachment resistance to Striga hermonthica in a core collection of rice germplasms

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In sub‐Saharan Africa, rice is the third‐largest source of food energy, with a rising demand due to population growth and changes in eating habits. The expansion of rice cultivation by converting fallow, maize, and sorghum fields into rainfed rice fields is one method that will help to close the gap between rice demand and production […]

Cuscuta species: Model organisms for haustorium development in stem holoparasitic plants

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Parasitic plants are notorious for causing serious agricultural losses in many countries. Specialized intrusive organs, haustoria, confer on parasitic plants the ability to acquire water and nutrients from their host plants. Investigating the mechanism involved in haustorium development not only reveals the fascinating mystery of how autotrophic plants evolved parasitism but also provides the foundation […]