We’re thrilled to announce the relaunch of the IPPS Seminar Series to make the wait for the next WCPP a little bit more bearable. We will kick off on January 8th, 2025, with an exciting new format and continue with our familiar first Wednesday-of-the-month schedule throughout the year. The new format will feature a 25-minute […]
RAFFLESIA is a parasitic plant that spends most of its life cycle within its host, a tropical vine, emerging only to bloom. Its flowers are the largest in the world, spanning up to a metre. Despite this, little is known about its life cycle, and it is almost impossible to grow. Half of the Rafflesia […]
Phtheirospermum japonicum, like most hemiparasitic species in the Orobanchaceae, forms multiple haustoria along its roots when it detects a nearby host. In this PNAS Brief Report, we present the discovery of an endogenous peptide, PjCLE1, which stimulates protohaustorium formation when applied externally. This makes the 12-amino acid-long PjCLE1 peptide the first identified peptidic haustorium-inducing factor […]
Parasitic plants use virulence factors (VFs), including proteins, RNAs and small molecules, to successfully infect a host plant. To reach host cells, VFs must be released from parasite cells. In the case of proteinaceous VFs, one major determinant of secretion is the presence of an N-terminal secretion signal in the peptide sequence. Algorithms that predict […]
Functional Ecology, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14658 1. Plants infected by parasitic species might be further stressed by climate warming as both factors can influence the host plant’s nutrient acquisition and growth. The root economics space, defined by root functional traits, reflects a plant’s nutrient acquisition strategy. However, the combined effects of warming and parasitism on root functional traits and their positions within […]
Ecology, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4418 Common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) can link multiple plants and distribute nutrients among them. However, how parasitic plants regulate the carbon and nutrient exchange between CMNs and the linked plants is unknown. Thus, we conducted a container experiment with two Trifolium pratense grown in two plastic cores and connected only by CMNs using a 25-μm nylon fabric in […]
Applied Soil Ecology, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105583 Parasitic plants can mediate soil conditioning by invasive and native host plant species, but how this may affect the competitive ability of these plants when they later grow in the conditioned soil has never been tested. This study tested whether soil conditioned by three invasive and three native plant species, either parasitized […]
Come and join us! Registration fee waiver abstract competition deadline is the 15th of October. […]
I am pleased to share our latest publication on strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis in rice: DOI: 10.1111/nph.20135 […]
Emeline N. Dossa, Hussein Shimelis, and Admire I. T Shayanowako School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa This study reports novel QTL and related genes for Striga asiatica and S. hermonthica resistance in maize. No QTL associated with dual resistance was found, suggesting that […]