Mixed outcomes from conservation practices on soils and Striga-affected yields of a low-input, rice–maize system in Madagascar

Upland rice farmers in Africa may reduce soil erosion and drudgery of soil tillage following Conservation Agriculture, combining no-till with legume cover crops. It mitigates Striga asiatica infestation and damage, but complementary technologies are required to raise crop yields. Read the Open Access publications: Mixed outcomes from conservation practices on soils and Striga-affected yields of […]

Dodder and host plants exchange large amount of proteins

The Jianqiang Wu group (Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences; www.wu-lab.org) reported that large numbers of proteins can be transported between the dodder Cuscuta australis and its host plant. Their proteomic analyses showed that hundreds to more than 1500 proteins moved between dodder and host plants, and hundreds of foreign proteins can even […]

Dodder mediates inter-plant salt systemic signaling

Recently, Jianqiang Wu Group at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Kunming, China revealed that dodder can transmit salt-induced systemic signaling between different host plants. They found that when one host was treated with salt solution, mobile systemic signals were produced and transmitted through dodder bridges, reaching another host, and this […]

New project focussing in Striga resistance enhancing plant nutrition of sorghum

A new project entitled “Striga Smart Sorghum Solutions for Smallholders in East Africa” funded through a GCRF – Royal Society Society, International Collaboration award, started in December 2019. This is a collaboration between Dr Jonne Rodenburg of NRI, University of Greenwich (UK) and Dr Steven Runo of Kenyatta University (Kenya). The project aims to combine […]

From Haustorium 76: Mistletoe (Viscum album) and its hosts in Britain

Viscum album, the only native British mistletoe, is rich in associated folklore, and commercially important for the Christmas markets and its medicinal uses. Like all mistletoes, it is a hemiparasite, photosynthetic, and attached only to the host xylem, initial contact with which stimulates hypertrophy of the host tissue. It is hence a gallcauser, inducing variable […]

From Haustorium 76: Dodder plant poses threat to trees and crops

Kakamega Forest Senior Manager George Aimo said the dodder plant is a major threat to trees and crops. When Samuel Onyango, a smallholder farmer from Kisumu County, first noticed yellowish spaghetti-like leafless vines hanging loosely on his fence some three years ago, he did not bother about them. Little did he know that it was […]

New editor: Susann Wicke

My research centers around the causes and consequences of heterotrophy in plants. Specifically, the goal of my work is to understand the eco-evolutionary and functional-genomic bases of organismal interaction between parasitic plants and their environment. My group prioritizes research on ecological and molecular adaptations associated with parasitism to obtain fundamental insights into the course of […]

New member at large Luiza Teixeira-Costa, PhD

My research in parasitic plant biology encompasses the broad diversity of these plants, from mistletoes, to the cryptic Rafflesiaceae, and the widely known Cuscuta. Using a variety of methods, from plant morphology and physiology, to phylogenetic analyses, I investigate haustorium development and evolution across the different clades among which parasitic plants have evolved. I’m also interested […]