Parasitic Plant 'Wiretaps' Host

A parasitic plant proves to be a clever pest: aside from sucking water and nutrients from its plant host, it also taps into the host's communications traffic. Professor Neelima Sinha and colleagues at the UC Davis Section of Plant Biology studied dodder vines growing on tomato plants in the lab. They found that RNA molecules from the host could be found in the dodder up to a foot (30 cm) from the point where the parasite had plumbed itself into the host.

Plants often use small RNA molecules as messengers between different parts of the plant. Picking up these RNA messengers could help the parasite synchronize its lifecycle with that of the host plant, Sinha said. Ultimately, the researchers hope to use host RNA to trigger a change in the parasite that kills it or makes it less damaging. The research could lead to new ways to combat parasites that attack crop plants.

Read the complete press release at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=8724.