For our IPPS March Online Seminar, we had again two wonderful talks and a strong turnout from our IPPS community. Dr. Begoña Pérez Vich presented her research on the sunflower-Orobanche cumana interaction. If you’re interested in the mapping of Avirulence genes, please check out her recent publication in BMC Plant Biology (Calderón-González Á et al., […]
Thanks to requests from our community after Jim Westwood’s IPPS in January, Jim generously offered to share his incredible collection of past WCPP conference posters, meeting photos, and some fascinating insights into the early days of the IPPS he presented in his seminar. You can now find these pictures in the updated society history section […]
Three generations of IPPS presidents, Julie Scholes, Harro Bouwmeester, and current president, Jonne Rodenburg, met recently in Senegal for the Promise II project meeting. Promise II, Promoting Root Microbes for Integrated Striga Eradication, is a Gates Foundation funded project aiming to engineer soil and plant microbiomes to enhance crop productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, to […]
At about the same time two papers describe the use of gene editing of the strigolactone transporter to reduce strigolactone exudation and thereby introduce parasitic weed resistance in sorghum and tomato. These are: Jiayang Shi, Cuo Mei, Fengyong Ge, Qingliang Hu, Xinwei Ban, Ran Xia, Peiyong Xin, Shujing Cheng, Gaohua Zhang, Jiawei Nie, Shiqi Zhang, […]
First talk: Dr. Begoña Pérez Vich from Spanish National Scientific Research Council will talk about “Genetics of the sunflower – Orobanche cumana parasitic interaction” Second talk: Amal Boukteb, PhD student, National Institute for Agricultural Research of Tunisia will talk about “Vicia faba–Orobanche foetida: Insights into Key Genetic Players” Date: Wednesday, March 5th at Time: 1 […]
The second IPPS online meeting in 2025 featured two excellent presentations on two different parasitic plants. Salma Shahid talked about the fascinating interplay between miRNAs and DNA methylation in the context of Cuscuta and Arabidopsis interactions. Please visit her group webpage to find out more. In the second talk, Jiacheng Ji, a PhD student in […]
The IPPS is shifting its main social media presence to Bluesky and LinkedIn. Follow us there to stay updated on the latest parasitic plants and IPPS news. See you on Bluesky! […]
(1) Prof. Saima Shahid from The University of Sheffield (UK) will talk about: “The interplay of mobile small RNAs and DNA methylation in Cuscuta parasitism” (2) Jiacheng Ji, PhD student, Inner Mongolia University (China) will talk about: “Genetic diversity, habitat suitability, and bioactive component accumulation of Cynomorium songaricum in China” Date: Wednesday, Feb 5th at […]
“Growing your parasite is part of the art form” – a wonderful IPPS seminar by Jim Westwood about the history of the IPPS and the research on parasitic plants! The community made great strides, but there are still plenty of challenges ahead. It was also fantastic to see such a huge turnout with over 90 […]
We are excited to announce that Prof. Jim Westwood from Virginia Tech will kick off our IPPS seminar series with the first seminar of 2025. He will talk about: “Challenges, progress and potential: Reflections on 30 years in parasitic plant research” Date: Wednesday, January 8th at Time: 1 PM GMT. Local Times: 8 AM in […]