Abstract
Striga spp. (witchweeds) are major agricultural pests which infest important crops in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Striga germinates in response to host-derived signal compounds, Strigolactons, and forms an attachment organ, haustorium. Striga haustorium penetrates into a host root and makes host-parasite vasculature connections, which allow the parasites to suck water and nutrients up from the host roots.
Striga spp. have broad host ranges. S. hermonthica infests to Gramineous plants including rice, maize and sorghum but not to dicotyledonous plants. To understand host recognition mechanisms of S. hermonthica, we investigated its interaction with host and non-host plants. Although Arabidopsis and cowpea are non-hosts, S. hermonthica haustorium is able to reach to their steles, while Lotus japonicus blocks Striga infection at the cortical cell layer. Our histological analysis suggests possible 4 types of non-host interaction of S. hermonthica.
We will also introduce Expressed sequence tag (EST) project of S. hermonthica.
