Abstract
Cuscuta japonica, a holoparasitic angiosperm, develops haustoria that are necessary to be parasitic on host plants. Previous cytological observations showed that haustorium formation is initiated by emergence of meristematic cells in the cortex. We hypothesized that the haustrium fomation is similar to apical meristem formation. In this study, we analyzed expression patterns of genes related to apical meristem formation during haustorium deveropment.
We isolated cDNAs of genes for apical meristem formation, e.g. homeobox genes (KNOX and WUSHEL-like), AS1 homologue and so on, from C. japonica. Their expression patterns during haustorium development were analyzed by RT-PCR. Our results indicated that some of the genes must be involved in haustrium development in Cuscuta. In addition, we also analyzed expression patterns of cell cycle related genes. We will discuss the role of their genes in haustrium development in Cuscuta.
