In the ever-ongoing arms race between crops and their pest scientist are kept busy by identifying new resistance mechanisms against new pests. Now a new study by Israeli scientists illustrates that looking at the genomes of those contributing wild relatives might help.
Tag Archives: parasite
Parasite plants give their development a headstart
For their nutrients are parasitic plants dependent on their host plant. Logically they make sure to time their germination accordingly. Up till now the assumption was that parasitic plants only develop an haustorium when they perceive specific haustorium inducing signals from their host. Now a new study shows that that is not the whole story.
Parasite organ formation
Parasitic plants need another plant to survive. With an organ called an haustorium they latch on their host plant to siphon away its nutrients. Now a new study shines some light on how the development of an haustorium is regulated.
Self-restricting parasites
For parasitic plants it is a disadvantage if they all latch on the same host. Now Swedish and Japanese researchers show in PNAS that some parasitic plants at least can control this.
Plant en Zo 