Forwarding message:  On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to cordially invite you and welcome you to the “4thInternational Congress on Strigolactones (ICS)”, which will be held in Paris, FRANCE, from 5 to 8 October 2026. All the information about travel, abstract submission, detailed scientific program, and registration is available on the website. Please see: https://ics2026.sciencesconf.org/   The scientific program […]

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1) aims to end poverty by ensuring that everyone’s basic needs are met for healthy and happy life. Farming can help lift entire communities out of poverty because it provides farmers with enough food to eat and sell to others. Science helps address important challenges to farming, […]

Striga hermonthica, an obligate root parasitic weed affecting cereal crops, poses a significant threat to global food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Germination of Striga seed largely relies on signaling molecules released by the host roots, mainly strigolactones (SLs). Suicidal germination is an effective strategy for reducing Striga seed banks in infested soils by applying […]

The use of strigolactone (SL) analogs as suicidal germination agents to control the seed banks of the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica has gained interest for field applications in recent years. However, concerns about the environmental safety of these SL analogs remain. In this study, we evaluated the mutagenic potential of two selected SL analogs, Methyl Phenlactonoate 3 […]

Crystalline ZIF-8 (C-ZIF-8) and amorphous ZIF-8 (Am-ZIF-8) were prepared and investigated to control the germination of Strigahermonthica, a root parasitic plant, which threatens cereal cropsproduction particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. We have demonstratedthat Am-ZIF-8 shows a better performance than C-ZIF-8 in inhibitingStriga seeds germination. This efficient performance of Am-ZIF-8materials can be attributed to the incomplete deprotonation […]

Striga hermonthica, an obligate root parasitic weed, poses significant threat to cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa. Lowering Striga seed bank in infested soils is a promising strategy to mitigate infestation levels. The dependency of Striga seed germination on strigolactones opens up the possibility of a “suicidal germination” approach, where synthetic germination stimulants induce lethal germination […]

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  […]

Striga hermonthica, a root parasitic weed from the Orobanchaceae family, devastates cereals yields and is, therefore, one of the major biological threats to global food security. Herein, we uncover a role of abscisic acid (ABA) as a rhizospheric signal that is involved in controlling Striga seed germination, Striga/Striga and Striga/host interactions. We propose that ABA serves as […]

Our Research Scientist, Dr. Muhammad Jamil represented the CDA at the 16th World Congress on Parasitic Plants He shared the #StrigaSolutions team’s success stories achieved through their Bill & Melinda Gates-funded project and discussed the latest advancements in suicidal germination technology for effective control of the #Striga parasite in cereals. The congress was organized by […]

Striga (Striga hermonthica), commonly known as witchweed, is an obligate root parasitic weed that poses a major threat to global food security and cereal  production in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, uncontrolled Striga infestation is causing significant losses in cereal production, affecting crop yields of cereals equating to at least $7 billion each year. There has been […]

Dear respected society members, I would like to share our website “Strigasolution”. We tried to show our ongoing activities on the Striga Control Project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Home   Muhammad JAMIL     […]