Dodder, a parasitic plant, obtains nutrients from its host through haustoria. The exchange of macromolecules between dodder and its host in nutrient-deficient environments is not well understood. In this study, it is shown that, when being subjected to nitrogen or phosphorus deficiency, at the transcript level soybean plants responded more strongly than did dodder plants. However, both plants exhibited significant changes […]

Parasitic plants evolved from autotrophs. Initially, certain autotrophs evolved to be facultative hemiparasitic plants which obtained only water and mineral nutrients from their hosts as supplements. Some of the facultative hemiparasitic plants later became obligate parasitic plants that had to depend on their hosts to complete their life cycles. Then gradually holoparasitic plants evolved from obligate parasites and they completely lost their photosynthesis capacity. In angiosperms, parasitic […]

Recently, Jianqiang Wu Group at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Kunming, China revealed that the parasitic plant dodder can bridge nutrient systemic signals inter-hosts. Nitrogen (N) deficiency is a common challenge to plants worldwide. In the dodder bridged cluster, whether dodder can also mediate nutrient systemic signals still unknown. In […]

Recently, the Jianqiang Wu Group at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Kunming, China uncovered how a dodder plant controls its flowering time. Using different host species and genetically modified plants, this team found that the dodder Cuscuta australis synchronizes its flowering time with those of the hosts, and the expression […]

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 […]

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 […]