Press release UC Davis Bacteria that could help one of Africa’s staple crops resist a major pest have been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Their findings, published March 26 in Cell Reports, could improve yields of sorghum, a mainstay of food and drink in West and East African countries. About 20 […]
In the Open Access publication “Host interactions, pathology, economic impacts and management of the facultative parasitic weed Rhamphicarpa fistulosa” we review, discuss and interpret the past 10 years of research conducted on rice vampireweed, a fascinating but destructive parasitic plant:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2024.106688This review starts where the previous review, conducted in 2014, finished: https://doi.org/10.1111/wre.12129 Since that previous review we’ve […]
Emeline N. Dossa · Hussein Shimelis · Admire I. T. Shayanowako · Mark D. Laing https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-024-03309-2 Our study identifies tropical and sub-tropical maize varieties with dual resistance to Striga asiatica and S. hermonthica, prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This discovery is instrumental in breeding new maize cultivars with stable Striga resistance and enhanced grain yield, […]
https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae031 (Open Access) In this study we demonstrate that nutrient availability decreases striga infection levels across host plant genotypes varying in striga tolerance levels. Macronutrients seem to be the main drivers of this observed reduction in striga infection. They improve the photosynthesis rates of striga infected sensitive genotype and even restore those of tolerant sorghum […]
Conference poster Ana Bendejacq-Seychelles. Journée doctorants UMR Agroécologie, Nov 2023, Dijon, France […]
Abstract : Among the alternatives to synthetic plant protection products, biocontrol appears as a promising method. This review reports on the diversity of fungal secondary metabolites phytotoxic to weeds and on the approach generally used to extract, characterize, identify and exploit them for weed management. The 183 phytotoxic fungal secondary metabolites discussed in this review […]
Recently we tested liquid formulation of two promising suicidal agents MP3 and Nijmegen-1 in Highly Striga infested famers field in Tanzania in collaboration with Dr Dennis Tippe of TARI. The results looks very promising and we observed 50-70% reduction in Striga emergence. The results indicate future scope and hope to reduce Striga infestation in African […]
For the highlighted publication, Muhammad Jamil, Jian You (Eric) Wang, Yagiz Alagoz and colleagues, under the lead of Salim Al-Babili, addressed the question of how Striga hermonthica seed dormancy and germination are correlated with endogenous ABA levels (Jamil et al., 2024). The Plant Journal Editor choice: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tpj.16668 […]
More Sorghum, Less Striga? Using resistant cultivars and improved crop nutrition. Striga is a parasitic weed causing severe yield losses to sorghum and other cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa. This 17-minute farmer-instruction video emphasises the need for an integrated management approach to address that problem. The video shows examples of Striga-resistant sorghum cultivars and suggests […]
Plant Physiology https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiad343 Martina Leso, Anna Kokla, Ming Feng & Charles W Melnyk The formation of the haustorium is common to all parasitic plants and requires a dedicated process of growth, attachment and tissue invasion. Such a process presumably involves cell wall modifications to allow cell division, cell expansion and the digestion of host […]