HAUSTORIUM 73 1 HAUSTORIUM Parasitic Newsletter ISSN 1944-6969 Official Organ of the International Parasitic Society (http://www.parasiticplants.org/)

July 2018 Number 73

CONTENTS

MESSAGE FROM THE IPPS PRESIDENT (Julie holes)………………….……………………………,.….... 2

AMSTERDAM CONGRESS - The 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 30 June – 5 July 2019, Amsterdam, the Netherlands ……………………………………………………………………………………..2

MEETING REPORT The 18th European Weed Research Society Symposium, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 17 to 21 June 2018………….3

ESSAY Hit parasitic weeds hard with HIGS: they possibly can be transgenically controlled. (Jonathan Gressel)…4

LITERATURE HIGHLIGHT New interactions and genomes revealed. (Jim Westwood)……………………………………………7

‘VISCUM ALBUM’ IN WEST AFRICA………………………………………………………………………...8

PRESS REPORTS Blackcaps wintering in Cambridge help spread mistletoe……………………………………………………..9 Plant Palette: this parasite promotes kissing at the holidays………………………………………………….9 How Maine’s red spruce forests are fighting for survival………………………………………………….....10 Declining native mistletoe discovered in Upper Hutt taken to Zealandia for preservation …………….....10 Ahead of Ugadi, the curious case of the disappearing neem trees in Hyderabad…………………………...11 Mistletoe feared extinct found on Little Cayman……………………………………………………………..11 MSU professors team up with African scientists to combat Striga………………………………………..…12 New striga resistant seeds boon for farmers…………………………………………………………………..12 Kamuli COA asks Parliament to ban the smoking of Striga………………………………………………...12 High-protein corn also resistant to parasitic weed…………………………………………………………....13 The flower that must not be named………………………………………………………………………....…14

HAUSTORIUM SUPPLEMENT……………………………………………………………………………..15

THESIS - Ecology and Systematics of Thonningia sanguinea Vahl. () in Southern Nigeria. Oligie Imarhiagbe …………………………………………………………………………………..15

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS: International Conference on Legume Genetics and Genomics, May 13-17, 2019 - Dijon, France………………………………………………………………………………………………16 The 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 30 June – 5 July 2019, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.….16

GENERAL WEBSITES……….…………………………………………………….……….……………….16

LITERATURE……………………………………………………………………………………………..…17 . End Notes………………………………………………………………..…………………. …………,…….39 HAUSTORIUM 73 2

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE tradition of regular meetings of experts on parasitic plants from all over the world that started in 1973 in Malta. With these meetings we Dear IPPS members, stimulate the exchange of information and ideas First, I would like to thank both Harro among researchers from around the world and Bouwmeester and Philippe Simier for offering working on a wide spectrum of disciplines and to host the next Congress in perspectives around the common theme of plant Amsterdam and Nantes respectively. I would . Conference sessions will be designed also like to thank everyone who took part in to find common interests and create synergy the Doodle Poll to select the venue. Over 100 among the different disciplines. They will members voted showing the enthusiasm and include presentations on cutting edge parasitic support for the Parasitic Plant Congress and plants research and will cover weedy and non- the excellent bids put forward by Harro and weedy species, management technologies, Philippe. The vote was extremely close but genomics, molecular biology, physiology and Amsterdam was selected as the next venue. evolution of parasitic plants. We are looking As you will see below the dates for the next forward to meeting researchers from all over the Congress are 30th June - 5th July 2019. Harro world for an exciting and varied scientific has provided a description of the venue, the program. In addition to an engaging scientific cost of registration and options for program, there will be time for social events accommodation. Further information will including a visit to beautiful Amsterdam. We become available via a Congress website later hope you will attend the 15th World Congress on in the year. Please put the dates in your Parasitic Plants and mark the date in your diary! calendar. On behalf of the Organizing Committee, and the IPPS and the EWRS Second, according to the schedule of elections Working Group on Parasitic Weeds, we are to the IPPS Executive committee we are looking forward to meeting you in Amsterdam. expected to elect a new Editor and Treasurer this year. Further details will be sent in a Local organising committee separate e-mail to all members of the society Harro Bouwmeester, Teun Munnik, Laura Wind, and I would like to encourage everyone to Benjamin Thiombano, Mehran Rahimi, Jos participate in the nomination and election Raaijmakers, Aimee Walmsley process.

Finally, I hope everyone is having a good Venue summer and that your parasitic plant research The meeting will be held in Casa is going well! (https://hotelcasa.nl/), a hotel/conference centre with which the University of Amsterdam has a With very best wishes contract for reduced rates. All requirements for a Julie scientific meeting, as well as optimal interaction Julie Scholes, IPPS President between the participants are available under one ([email protected]) roof: a meeting room, room for posters, a restaurant for dinner, a bar as well as comfortable hotel rooms. Casa is located close to AMSTERDAM CONGRESS one of the main train stations of Amsterdam (Amsterdam Amstel) and other public transport The 15th World Congress on Parasitic (bus and metro), about 13 minutes from the Plants, 30 June – 5 July 2019, Amsterdam, wonderful, historic, city centre (bus or metro) the Netherlands and about 30 min from Schiphol (by train) one of the major European airports that can be easily On behalf of the International Parasitic Plant reached from all over the world. Consider Society (IPPS), we invite you to the 15th spending some more time in Amsterdam before World Congress on Parasitic Plants (WCPP15) or after the meeting, as it is a fantastic city to to be held from Sunday June 30 (arrival and visit. With its canals, its typical centuries-old registration) until Friday July 5 (morning houses, its museums, including the world- departure) 2019 in Amsterdam, the famous Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum, it Netherlands. This meeting is organized by The is a must see (see for example University of Amsterdam in collaboration with https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/see-and- the IPPS and the Working Group on Parasitic do/things-to-do/top-20-things-to-do-in- Weeds of European Weed Research Society amsterdam). (EWRS). WCPP15 will continue the long HAUSTORIUM 73 3

Cost of the meeting between host and parasite in carrot (182), or The registration fee will be approximately 570 between soil fertility and Striga parasitism (176), euro - this includes coffee, tea, lunch and or to decipher the differences between obligate dinner, the conference dinner and a half-day and facultative parasites (178). Other studies excursion. The registration fee also includes focused on physiological properties of the two year’s membership of the International parasitism, by considering the macromolecules Parasitic Plant Society (60 euro). Registration translocated to the parasite from the host (191), will open September 2018. Rooms at Casa are or observing in vitro the germination of Striga available at a (discount) rate of 149 euro per hermonthica (187) or the synergy of stimulants, night (5 nights = 745 euros). Rooms can be or by comparing hybrid populations of the shared thus making the venue affordable for parasite (196). Another abstract (76) considered young scientists also. Alternatively, plentiful a new methodology useful for the detection of accommodation can be found in Amsterdam the parasite in the field. including youth hostels and AirBNB. The Symposium was very intense, well Harro Bouwmeester. organized, scientifically interesting and fruitfully interactive.

MEETING REPORT Chemical Weed Management 71. P. Vahamidis et al. - Sunflower broomrape The 18th European Weed Research Society occurrence under the use of Clearfield Symposium, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 17 to 21 ExpressSun and technologies. June 2018. New Technologies 76. R. Lati et al. - 3D Morphological Crop The 18th EWRS Symposium took place in Analysis - A New Methodology for Ljubljana (Slovenia) from 17 to 21 June 2018, Detection of Broomrape Parasitism. at the GR-Ljubljana Exhibition and Weed Biology Convention Centre, organized by the 174. D. Sisou et al. - Characterization of Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (AIS). Over resistance to sunflower broomrape 260 participants from 40 countries attended (Orobanche cumana W.) in sunflower this important symposium, submitting 240 (Helianthus annuus L.). scientific abstracts. 176. J. Rodenburg and L. Bastiaans – Are Striga spp. and low soil fertility, two sides of The programme was organized into 13 the same coin? sessions with 76 oral presentations, 12 178. L. Bastiaans, A. et al. - Facultative or working group meetings, a poster section and a obligate parasitism - does it make a pre-symposium workshop. Although it was not difference? possible to organize a whole session on 182. S. Emran - Metabolic and biochemical parasitic weeds, because a more integrated aspects of interaction between species of programme was preferred, the subject proved carrots to root parasite Orobanche. to be still important among the scientific 187. Y. Krasylenko et al. - Purple witchweed interests of the society. (Striga hermonthica (Delile) Benth.) in vitro germination and visualization of its Thus, fourteen abstracts having ‘parasitic cytoskeleton. weeds’ as main subject were submitted to the 191. S. Marzouk and R. Aly - Translocation of Symposium and accepted in five different macromolecules from tomato host plant to sessions (see below), six of them as oral the parasitic weed Phelipanche aegyptiaca. presentations (# 76, 174, 176, 178, 210, 270 in 195. D. Plakhin etal. - Synergism in the the list below). germination stimulation of Orobanche and its effect on host specificity. Most of the abstracts had Phelipanche and 196. D. Plakhin et al. – Characterisation of a Orobanche species as the parasitic weed diverse hybrid population of Phelipanche subject, and P. ramosa was the preferred ramosa and P. aegyptiaca. species. Different weed management practices Integrated Weed Management for their control were reported, such as 210. H. Eizenberg et al. - Egyptian broomrape chemical on sunflower (71), integrated in (Phelipanche aegyptiaca) control in tomato (210) or otherwise against P. ramosa processing tomato: a review. (270, 278, 290). Other studies contributed to Biologically Inspired Weed Management characterize the resistance of sunflower to its parasite (174), or to understand the interactions HAUSTORIUM 73 4

270. E. Dor et al - Amino acid insect families seem to be impervious to the effects overproduction confers resistance to plants of crop engineered RNAi’s that are active in against Phelipanche and Orobanche spp. silencing of related families (Cooper et al. 2018). 278. S. Gibot-Leclerc et al. - Biocontrol An RNAi ingested when a pest attacks a crop must against the root parasitic plant species be able to arrive intact at the target without being Phelipanche ramosa, branched broomrape degraded. It was initially not known whether RNAi of tobacco. could travel from a crop into a parasitic weed. Over 290. A. Boari et al. - Effectiveness of a the past few years elegant experiments with parasitic natural fertilizer in controlling the parasitic plants have demonstrated that RNA can move both weed Phelipanche ramosa. from host to parasite and parasite to host, and be expressed at the target (see recent excellent review Maurizio Vurro. by Westwood and Kim 2017), and RNA from the parasite can also negatively affect the host (Shahid ESSAY et al. 2018). There were partial successes showing that Phelipanche aegyptiaca (Aly et al. 2009), as Hit parasitic weeds hard with HIGS: they well as Cuscuta pentagona (Alakonya et al. 2012), possibly can be transgenically controlled could be suppressed by RNAi emanating from hosts, but unfortunately not to an extent that is sufficient to Introduction be of interest to a farmer. Only preliminary results were reported of a larger experiment with maize It was demonstrated in pioneering work over a engineered with 13 RNAi constructs, each designed decade ago, that transgenic plants could be to interact with single sites on mRNA encoding key engineered to produce double stranded RNA one of five key Striga asiatica metabolic enzymes molecules that when entering a pest replicate (de Framond et al. 2007). The results were negative themselves using the pest’s machinery while except for some slowing of Striga growth. Most disseminating throughout the pest in a virus like RNAi researchers lost interest and went on to other manner. The double stranded RNA is processed things for nearly a decade. in the pest into short usually 21-24 nucleotide long pieces. If these pieces are specially encoded to A parallel system to HIGS where a virus is used interact with pest mRNA, they interfere with pest instead of the crop plant to induce gene silencing mRNA function. Thus, the final processing has been used to vector RNAi into parasitic weeds product of the double stranded RNA is termed (Dubey et al. 2017; Kirigia et al. 2014). While interference RNA (RNAi) and the interference it VIGS is an excellent system for studying general causes is termed Host-Induced Gene Silencing functional genomics of the parasitic weeds, it is the (HIGS). HIGS was first demonstrated to work genes that are highly expressed during infection that two decades ago with nematode specific RNAi are of interest in our context. Even if one were to be constructs, significantly inhibiting the able to completely suppress a parasite with VIGS in development of the nematodes that attacked the the laboratory, it would not be a viable system for transgenic plants (Huang et al. 2006). This major use with underground parasitic weeds in the field, breakthrough was heralded as the new way to except in the cases where a host-virus that lacks develop transgenic crops that could be thus noticeable pathogenicity translocates and replicates rendered resistant to pests of all sorts. This could in the parasite (Gal-On et al. 2009), and can potentially augment or supplant pesticides (except possibly be used to vector RNAi. for herbicides used on free-living weeds), as well as the need to genetically engineer crops with In the past two years there have been significant protein toxins such as Bt for insect control. advances leading to >99% suppression of genes in some cases e.g. (Gressel and Polturak 2018; Power This realization that one could have an ‘in seedo’ et al. 2017; Sharma et al. 2018; Tomar et al. 2018). technology, any technology in or on the seed that This has come from a better understanding of how obviates the need for an external input and where to make more robust HIGS RNAi constructs, as well pest control is at no cost to the farmer except for as the availability of better paradigms for the choice seeds, caused many to try it. The results for the of pest-gene mRNAs to suppress. These successes most part were ‘promising’, i.e. good enough for could not have been possible without advances in academic publication in a respectable journal. gene isolation and sequencing as well as whole Recent reviews describe these endeavours to use organism gene sequencing together with advances in HIGS against insects (Zotti et al. 2018), viruses bioinformatics. This confluence of new and needed (Tomar et al. 2018), and fungal pathogens information is now available for major parasitic (Sharma et al. 2018). One’s first worry with weeds and their crop hosts. The possibility of HIGS was that the RNAi made by the host will having crops robustly resistant to parasitic weeds is not get to its target in the pest. Indeed, some probably well within our grasp in a relatively short HAUSTORIUM 73 5 time period. This article with the suggestions DNA using reverse transcriptase enzymes, which below is only being written because the author has like so many molecular biology procedures, is been retired for more than a decade. Under other performed with readily available commercial kits circumstances, he himself would instead be coupled with quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR), and the following the suggestions below with students and most amplified pieces are then subjected to colleagues. The suggestions are extrapolated from sequencing. Assembling the transcriptome in a what has been learned about how best to use useful manner may require the assistance of a RNAi in other crop/pest systems. This article is bioinformatician. There have been transcriptomic written because the author would like others to analyses of Cuscuta pentagona (Ranjan et al. 2014), follow this up, expand and refine the protocols, but not using qRT-PCR, and thus all the transcripts and release the world from the demon of parasitic are given equal weight, which does not tell us which weeds. are more likely to be the most important. A qRT- PCR analysis of housekeeping genes in Striga Choosing the target genes – genes the parasite hermonthica has been published to serve as a expresses during attack reference (Fernandez-Aparicio et al. 2013). The The initial attempts to use RNAi against parasitic concept of doing so was to have genes for weeds targeted major metabolic genes (Aly et al. normalization qRT-PCR during attack. A 2009; de Framond et al. 2007). In retrospect, this transcriptomics analysis of Striga hermonthica and may have been a mistake. They may not be Phelipanche aegytiaca gene sequences that are heavily expressed during attack, and also, if specifically expressed at various stages after host- inhibition is not complete, the parasite might be parasite has also been published (Yang et al. 2015). able to eke through. Those researchers had no Thus, it is now possible to qRT-PCR mRNA from choice and did what they could at that time. They both host and parasite at the point of contact and were able to fish out the major metabolic genes then compare the sequences of those mRNAs that from host and parasite using consensus sequences, are specifically expressed at the point of contact to and then finding stretches in the parasite the known sequences of the host and other non- sequences that were different from those of the parasitic plants using standard software. It is thus host so that the RNAi would not cause a ‘self- easy to ascertain which genes are highly expressed goal’ in the host. It may have been a mistake to in the host, and which in the parasite at the time of use a promoter from a leaf attacking virus in the parasite attack. The subjects of interest here are maize/Striga attempt, with little evidence that it is those only specifically expressed after there is a host expressed in maize roots (de Framond et al. 2007). parasite junction. If the parasite genes expressed at various stage of attack are RNAi silenced, attack We now have available almost complete reference should be aborted. An advantage to this approach is genomes for at least one crop attacked by Striga, that one need not know the function of the genes Orobanche/Phelipanche as well as Cuscuta being expressed, just that they are specifically species. A draft quality expressed by the parasite during attack, presumably reference genome has been published (Shahid et for an important function needed at that time. al. 2018). According to J. H. Westwood (pers. comn.), there is a better genome posted of Cuscuta The knowledge of the genes being highly expressed australis (Sun et al. 2018), and the reference in the attacked host may also be of interest, not for genomes of Striga asiatica and Orobanche their function per se, but for their promoters. These cumana are close to being published. These will might be the best promoters to use to express the allow a much better approach to choosing parasite double stranded RNA, as well as for consideration specific genes to target. It is advised to choose in the future for upregulating host resistance genes, sequenced parasite/host pairs, where parasite for another level of protection from attack. attack can be facilitated in an axenic system in order to eliminate transcripts emanating from Using multi-target constructs crop- or parasite-associated microorganisms. It is The early attempts to suppress parasitic weeds (as not clear whether this has been done in previous well as other pests) all used constructs producing a transcriptomic analyses with parasitic weeds. The single RNAi sequence targeting a single site on the attack site - host and parasite together - should be mRNA targeted. We now know that this is excised at various stages after attachment and insufficient to get the level of control needed. Even penetration, and the pieces subjected to expression if it were, a single wobble base mutation in the 21- profiling (transcriptomics). In the past, parasite 24 nucleotide sequence targeted would significantly tissue was either cut away from the host (Ranjan destabilize the binding by the RNAi without et al. 2014). or laser micro-dissected (Honaas et affecting the amino-acid sequence of the targeted al. 2013), which as discussed below, may not have enzyme, at least partially obviating the silencing been necessary. The mRNAs being expressed at effect of the RNAi. Thus, pest resistance would be various stages of attack are transformed back to quick to evolve to RNAi, probably more quickly HAUSTORIUM 73 6 than mutations conferring target-site resistance to that such an approach will succeed. As discussed pesticides, where wobble base changes cannot above, much of the preparatory work has already confer resistance. been done. The time is ripe. Go for it – I wish I were in a position where I could. The recent success with crop/pest pairs are all with constructs containing many RNAi encoding References sequences. They encode sequences targeting many sites on one mRNA and/or many different Alakonya A, Kumar R, Koenig D, Kimura S, mRNAs. Whether these suppressive effects are Townsley B, Runo S, Garces HM, Kang J, additive or synergistic is immaterial, suppression Yanez A, David-Schwartz R, Machuka J, is often as complete as can be measured. This is Sinha N (2012) Interspecific RNA not completely a wild shot-gun approach, as each interference of SHOOT MERISTEMLESS- RNAi is aimed specifically at a target. There is no like disrupts Cuscuta pentagona plant great problem in putting many RNAi encoding parasitism. Plant Cell 24 (7):3153-3166. sequences in a transformation construct, as they Aly R, Cholakh H, Joel DM, Leibman D, are quite short, tens can be included. Follow-up Steinitz B, Zelcer A, Naglis A, Yarden O, experiments show that for some unknown reasons, Gal-On A (2009) Gene silencing of mannose some of the RNAi sequences do not work, and 6-phosphate reductase in the parasitic weed some do (Power et al. 2017). More the reason for Orobanche aegyptiaca through the large numbers of RNAi encoding sequences, each production of homologous dsRNA sequences under the control of a different promoter chosen to in the host plant. Plant Biotechnology Journal be active in the tissues and cells where needed. 7 (6):487-498. Cooper AMW, Silver K, Ji Z, Park Y, Zhu KY Discussion and Conclusions (2018) Molecular mechanisms influencing Regulatory issues efficiency of RNA interference in insects. HIGS constructs do not encode for proteins, Pest Management Science eliminating toxicological issues from the https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.5126:in press regulatory hoops that must be undertaken for de Framond A, Rich PJ, McMillan J, Ejeta G transgenic crops that synthesize novel proteins. If (2007) Effects on Striga parasitism of the promoters used restrict expression to only transgenic maize armed with RNAi tissues that are parasitized, there will not even be constructs targetting S. asiatica genes. In: novel RNAi in edible part of the plant. A recent Ejeta G, Gressel J (eds) Integrating new economic analysis of the actual costs of technologies for Striga control: Towards developing and registering a crop when it is a ending the witch-hunt. World Scientific, ‘public good’ (as in this case) and is done by the Singapore, pp 185-196. public sector come up with numbers more than Dubey NK, Eizenberg H, Leibman D, Wolf D, two orders of magnitude less costly than industry Edelstein M, Abu-Nassar J, Marzouk S, Gal- claims (Schiek et al. 2016). On A, Aly R (2017) Enhanced host-parasite resistance based on down-regulation of Resistance issues Phelipanche aegyptiaca target genes is likely In a situation where multiple targets are affected, by mobile small RNA. Frontiers in Plant it is hard to evolve target-site resistance, even if Science 8:article 1574. based on innocuous mutations in wobble bases. doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.01574 This does not mean that some other type of Fernandez-Aparicio M, Huang K, Wafula EK, resistance may eventually evolve, and further Honaas LA, Wickett NJ, Timko MP, thought will then be required on how to overcome dePamphilis CW, Yoder JI, Westwood JH it. As a pre-emptive starter, it would not be (2013) Application of qRT-PCR and RNA- advisable to abandon the successful herbicide Seq analysis for the identification of resistance (Ransom et al. 2012) and biocontrol housekeeping genes useful for normalization (Nzioki et al. 2016) approaches to controlling of gene expression values during Striga parasitic weeds, but to integrate the RNAi hermonthica development. Molecular approach into a system where all approaches are Biology Reports 40 (4):3395-3407. rotated. Gal-On A, Naglis A, Leibman D, Ziadna H, Kathiravan K, Papayiannis L, Holdengreber Concluding challenge V, Guenoune-Gelbert D, Lapidot M, Aly R The RNAi approach would have the lowest (2009) Broomrape can acquire viruses from parasite-control economic input requirement for its hosts. Phytopathology 99 (11):1321-1329. the grower, of all methodologies currently Gressel J, Polturak G (2018) Suppressing available. The evidence from other pest/crop aflatoxin biosynthesis is not a breakthrough systems. as well as with parasitic weeds, suggests HAUSTORIUM 73 7

if not useful. Pest Management Science 74 parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris target host (1):17-21. messenger RNAs. Nature 553 (7686):82-85. Honaas LA, Wafula EK, Yang ZZ, Der JP, Sharma KK, Pothana A, Prasad K, Shah D, Kaur Wickett NJ, Altman NS, Taylor CG, Yoder J, Bhatnagar D, Chen ZY, Raruang Y, Cary JI, Timko MP, Westwood JH, Depamphilis JW, Rajasekaran K, Kishan Sudini H, CW (2013) Functional genomics of a Bhatnagar-Mathur P (2018) Peanuts that generalist parasitic plant: Laser keep aflatoxin at bay: a threshold that microdissection of host-parasite interface matters. Plant Biotechnology Journal 16 reveals host-specific patterns of parasite (5):1024-1033. gene expression. BMC Plant Biology Sun G, Xu Y, Liu H, Sun T, Zhang J, 13:article 9. Hettenhausen C, Shen G, Qi J, Qin J, Li I, Huang G, Allen R, Davis EL, Baum TJ, Wang L, Chang W, Guo Z, Baldwin IT, Wu J Hussey RS (2006) Engineering broad root- (2018) Large-scale gene losses underlie the knot resistance in transgenic plants by genome evolution of parasitic plant Cuscuta RNAi silencing of a conserved and australis. bioRxiv doi: essential root-knot nematode parasitism https://doi.org/10.1101/285593:https://www. gene. Proceedings of the National biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/2004/2012/28 Academy of Science USA 103:14302- 5593 14306. Tomar G, Chakrabarti SK, Sharma NN, Kirigia D, Runo S, Alakonya A (2014) A Jeevalatha A, Sundaresha S, Vyas K, Azmi virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) W (2018) RNAi-based transgene conferred system for functional genomics in the extreme resistance to the geminivirus causing parasitic plant Striga hermonthica. Plant apical leaf curl disease in potato. Plant Methods 10:article 16. Biotechnology Reports 12 (3):195-205. Nzioki HS, Oyosi F, Morris CE, Kaya E, Westwood JH, Kim G (2017) RNA mobility in Pilgeram AL, Baker CS, Sands DC (2016) parasitic plant - host interactions. RNA Striga biocontrol on a toothpick: A readily Biology 14 (4):450-455. deployable and inexpensive method for Yang ZZ, Wafula EK, Honaas LA, Zhang HT, smallholder rarmers. Frontiers in Plant Das M, Fernandez-Aparicio M, Huang K, Science 7:article 1121. Bandaranayake PCG, Wu B, Der JP, Clarke Power IL, Dang PM, Sobolev VS, Orner VA, CR, Ralph PE, Landherr L, Altman NS, Powell JL, Lamb MC, Arias RS (2017) Timko MP, Yoder JI, Westwood JH, Characterization of small RNA populations dePamphilis CW (2015) Comparative in non-transgenic and aflatoxin-reducing- transcriptome analyses reveal core parasitism transformed peanut. Plant Science 257:106- genes and suggest gene duplication and 125. repurposing as sources of structural novelty. Ranjan A, Ichihashi Y, Farhi M, Zumstein K, Molecular Biology and Evolution 32 (3):767- Townsley B, David-Schwartz R, Sinha NR 790. (2014) De Novo assembly and Zotti M, dos Santos EA, Cagliari D, Christiaens characterization of the transcriptome of the O, Taning CNT, Smagghe G (2018) RNA parasitic weed dodder identifies genes interference technology in crop protection associated with plant parasitism. Plant against arthropod pests, pathogens and Physiology 166 (3):1186-1199. nematodes. Pest Management Science 74 Ransom J, Kanampiu F, Gressel J, De Groote (6):1239-1250. H, Burnet M, Odhiambo G (2012) Herbicide applied to imidazolinone Jonathan Gressel, Plant and Environmental resistant-maize seed as a Striga control Sciences – Weizmann Institute of Science, option for small-scale African farmers. Rehovot 76100, Israel Weed Science 60 (2):283-289. [email protected] Schiek B, Hareau G, Baguma Y, Medakker A, Douches D, Shotkoski F, Ghislain M (2016) Demystification of GM crop costs: LITERATURE HIGHLIGHT releasing late blight resistant potato varieties as public goods in developing New Cuscuta interactions and genomes revealed countries. International Journal of Biotechnology 14:112-131. The first half of 2018 has brought a breakthrough in Shahid S, Kim G, Johnson NR, Wafula E, parasitic plant genomes as three new papers have Wang F, Coruh C, Bernal-Galeano V, released Cuscuta genome data (Shahid et al., 2018; Phifer T, dePamphilis CW, Westwood JH, Sun et al., 2018; Vogel et al., 2018). This is a Axtell MJ (2018) MicroRNAs from the remarkable advance. Even knowing that other HAUSTORIUM 73 8 parasitic plant genomes are in various stages of sequencing, assembly, and annotation, it is The genome papers diverge in other questions. momentous to have these genomes revealed in Vogel et al. report evidence of 64 horizontal gene such rapid succession. It is also perhaps surprising transfer events involving ancestral C. campestris that the first thee parasitic plant genomes to be acquisition of host genes. Sun et al. devote effort to published are all Cuscuta species, with two analyzing regulation of gene expression, taking up dealing with C. campestris and one with C. the question of haustorium origin and concluding australis. that haustoria in C. australis primarily use genes that are normally associated with root development The paper by Shahid et al. focuses on C. in autotrophic species. These papers highlight the campestris and released a highly fragmented abundance of new data that is available and the genome of this species as part of the supporting types of questions that can be asked. Considering material for a study on small RNAs in parasite this along with a new aspect of parasitism involving host interactions. The genomic sequences were RNAs as agents of cross-species gene silencing, used in identifying Cuscuta microRNAs these are indeed exciting times for parasitic plant (miRNAs) that are expressed in haustorial tissues research. in association with the host, Arabidopsis thaliana. The miRNAs appear to be mobile into host stems, Shahid S, Kim G, Johnson NR, Wafula E, Wang F, where they result in production of small RNAs Coruh C, Bernal-Galeano V, Phifer T, generated from the degradation of host target dePamphilis CW, Westwood JH, Axtell MJ mRNAs. The parasite miRNAs have homology to (2018) MicroRNAs from the parasitic plant host genes, so specifically bind to these targets to Cuscuta campestris target host messenger shut down their expression. Among the specific RNAs. Nature 553: 82 genes targeted for silencing are the sieve element Sun G, Xu Y, Liu H, Sun T, Zhang J, Hettenhausen occlusion protein SOER1 and three auxin C, Shen G, Qi J, Qin Y, Li J, Wang L, Chang W, receptors. Notably, parasites accumulated more Guo Z, Baldwin IT, Wu J (2018) Large-scale biomass when grown on Arabidopsis hosts that gene losses underlie the genome evolution of were mutated in SOER1 or the auxin receptor parasitic plant Cuscuta australis. Nature AFB3. Taken together, these results make a strong Communications 9: 2683 case that C. campestris miRNAs function as trans- Vogel A, Schwacke R, Denton AK, Usadel B, specific factors that facilitate parasitism. This is Hollmann J, Fischer K, Bolger A, Schmidt the first report of this type of interaction between MHW, Bolger ME, Gundlach H, Mayer KFX, parasitic plants. Weiss-Schneeweiss H, Temsch EM, Krause K (2018) Footprints of parasitism in the genome of Vogel et al. describe a more complete genome of the parasitic Cuscuta campestris. C. campestris. For a parasitic plant, this species Nature Communications 9: 2515 has a relatively compact genome, estimated at 556 Mbp per haploid genome, with a predicted 44,303 Jim Westwood, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA genes. Sun et al. report an even smaller genome 24061-0331, USA. [email protected] for C. australis, estimating it at about half the size of C. campestris at 273 Mbp, with 19,671 predicted gene loci. Both papers describe insights ‘VISCUM ALBUM’ IN WEST AFRICA from Cuscuta evolution, and although they ask slightly different questions, some common themes We have recently identified a considerable number emerge. One of the more intriguing questions of papers in which medicinal value has been studied regarding parasite genomes is the extent to which or attributed to ‘Viscum album’ in West Africa the parasitic lifestyle has resulting in loss of (there are at least two in the Literature section unnecessary genes. This question can only be below). As there is no reason to accept this confidently addressed with a good quality genome identification as correct, as pointed out by Wahab et in hand to provide certainty that genes are actually al., 2010. (TLC phytochemical screening in some missing rather than just reduced in expression. For Nigerian Loranthaceae. Journal of Pharmacognosy C. campestris, losses are reported for genes related and Phytotherapy 2(5): 64-70.), we have contacted to , metabolism, transport the authors of 14 publications, requesting them to processes, and symbiotic interactions. This is try and confirm which mistletoe species is really the similar to the situation in C. australis, in which subject of their study. So far there has been no lost genes relate to photosynthesis, chloroplast response. If any other reader can throw light on this RNA processing, primary nutrient uptake from unfortunate situation, do please let us know. soil, and leaf and root development. All of these make sense for Cuscuta, which lacks functional leaves, roots and relies on host photosynthesis. HAUSTORIUM 73 9

PRESS REPORTS celebrated the winter solstice which may explain part of mistletoe’s association with Christmas-- but ‘Blackcaps wintering in Cambridge help it’s a stretch. spread mistletoe’ Supposedly, a Norse myth explains mistletoe’s link to kissing. According to the myth, an arrow made from mistletoe killed Balder, son of Frigga, the goddess of love and beauty. The other gods resurrected Balder, and Frigga’s tears of joy formed the white berries produced by the common European mistletoe species, Viscum album. Legend says that the berries represent kisses bestowed by Frigga to people that meet under the mistletoe. Some say that a berry should be removed from the mistletoe for each kiss and that the mistletoe loses Image copyright Science Photo Library its "power" once all the berries are removed. The name mistletoe comes from second-century A link between climate change, a migratory bird Anglo-Saxon descriptions of the plants as and an abundance of mistletoe in Cambridge has ‘misteltan’, derived from the word ‘mistel’ meaning been found. A study of the city's natural history dung, and “tan” meaning twig. These early people has discovered the plant is present in unexpectedly associated the appearance of mistletoe with large quantities. Blackcaps which feed on droppings from birds on tree branches. Not exactly mistletoe are staying in the city instead of the most romantic legend around, but they did think migrating and are spreading its seeds. there was some magical process at hand that NatHistCam studied a five-mile by five-mile (8km spontaneously generated the resulting mistletoe by 8km) square of the city, roughly centred on plants. Mill Road Cemetery, and discovered unexpected amounts of the plant and also blackcaps wintering The French link mistletoe to Christmas through in the area. The Cambridge survey was designed Christ’s crucifixion, using the fact that mistletoe is to create a snapshot of the flora and fauna of the poisonous. According to a French legend, the city. original mistletoe plant grew on the tree that was Researchers said the mystery of why it has so made into the cross on which Jesus was crucified. much mistletoe has been answered. The bird This made the mistletoe cursed, causing it to be usually off as winter approaches, but in forever poisonous and a parasite, never allowed to recent years has stayed in the city as the weather grow independently on the ground. has become warmer. While feeding on mistletoe the birds smear seeds on to trees which helps Mistletoe may be poisonous, but at various times it spread the plant, the survey group said. has also been considered an aphrodisiac. Medically, Bob Jarman of the Cambridge Bird club, who is it can be an abortifacient, meaning it will cause a researching overwintering blackcaps, said: ‘The miscarriage of pregnancy. Some writers suggest this blackcaps are traditionally migratory birds who is one reason mistletoe is linked with fertility, which are here for the summer and then head to warmer in some cultures also meant uninhibited sexuality climes for the winter.’ The RSPB said that since and promiscuity. In any case, ingestion of mistletoe the 1960s, more of them had started to winter here is likely to cause severe cardiac, digestive, and because of climate change. neurological malfunction and death are likely. BBC News 25 December, 2017 You’d be wise to search for aphrodisiacs elsewhere! Another random fun fact: the mistletoe that started Plant Palette: this parasite promotes kissing at the kissing tradition according to European folklore the holidays is usually the species Viscum album. The mistletoe sold in the U.S. is an assortment of species from a No one gives much thought to mistletoe beyond different , Phoradendron. But regardless of the Holidays. the mistletoe species used, it really is an odd How in the world did a plant parasite become tradition when you stop to think about it! associated with kisses and Christmas? There are lots of legends told about mistletoe, but the Jennifer Schultz, Herald & Review, 29th December, familiar association with Christmas has its roots in 2017. Europe. The ancient Druids used a golden sickle to cut mistletoe from their most-revered tree, the oak, as part of ceremonies celebrating fertility that included human sacrifice. The Druids also HAUSTORIUM 73 10

‘How Maine’s red spruce forests are with audio effects, and some funny back-and- fighting for survival’ forth between him and Baldecchi, he includes original music by Sam Kyzivat ’18. Philip Kiefer ’18, a member of the podcasting student team that produces ‘The Bowdoin For the associated podcast go Commons’, has made an audio story about the to:http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/2018/04/ honors project of his friend Hanna Baldecchi how-maines-red-spruce-forests-are-fighting-for- ’18, who is researching the Eastern dwarf survival/ mistletoe. This mistletoe is a tiny parasitic Philip Kiefer, 24th April, 2018. plant that lives on the branches of spruce trees, stealing nutrients from and slowly killing its ‘Declining native mistletoe discovered in hosts. Upper Hutt taken to Zealandia for preservation ‘

A declining native mistletoe has been found in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, and conservationists are hurrying to save it. The mistletoe, known as Ileostylus micranthus, was unexpectedly found growing on a tree planted by Greater Wellington Regional Council to provide cover and shade for other native plants. The only problem is the tree is dying, which means the mistletoe will also die, so a plan was hatched to move the shrub to Wellington's Zealandia ecosanctuary and nearby Otari-Wilton's Bush.

Members of Ngā Manu Nature Reserve, Otari- Wilton's Bush and Zealandia collected fruit from the mistletoe, before planting their seeds at Zealandia. The ‘host tree’, a lucerne planted next to State Highway 2 at River Rd, was not expected to survive until summer, so there was little time to act if the mistletoe was to be preserved. With his recorder, Kiefer accompanied biology major Hanna Baldecchi ’18 on one of her data- collecting trips to the Maine island of Isleboro this winter. Driving up the coast and walking through the woods, Baldecchi explained her research into the mystery of why the mistletoe is affecting red and white spruces differently. The red spruce appears to be better at protecting itself from the mistletoe’s threat, but scientists are not sure why.

‘She is looking at something really cool. She is studying a predator-prey relationship in the forests of Maine. But not like wolves and deer or anything,’ Kiefer remarks early in his Ileostylus micranths Photo Pieter Pelser podcast. ‘The predator she is looking at is a plant, mistletoe, and the prey is the forest Hundreds of tiny fruit from the plants were taken itself. When Hanna looks at the trees she from a tree they were growing on in Upper Hutt, doesn’t see a peaceful place; instead she sees a with their seeds replanted at Zealandia. bunch of plants fighting for their lives.’ Zealandia conservation and research project leader Pascale Michel said while the plant In his podcast, Kiefer enlivens the fatal, and species was not threatened, it was declining in quiet, process of the mistletoe’s scourge on Wellington. ‘We are on a bit of a rescue mission white spruce trees, and the curious way red here to try to spread those plants throughout the spruces are managing to defend themselves Wellington region,’ Shanahan said. from what should be a mortal enemy. Along ‘They're quite ripe so it's a good time of the year to pick them. Usually birds will do that job, but HAUSTORIUM 73 11 today it's us doing the job.’ The bright orange Loranthus before it spreads to other branches fruit are a good source of food for birds and will also help. geckos. S Bachan Jeet Singh, The New Indian Express, Zealandia did not have the native species in its 19th February, 2018. ecosanctuary, so it was hoping the propagation process would be successful. ‘It has been a bit ‘Mistletoe feared extinct found on Little of a rushed process because of the host tree Cayman’ dying. We had planned to do this next year but decided to rush it a little bit this year to try and establish here at Zealandia. ‘We'll most probably have another go next year as well.’

Zealandia manager of conservation and research Danielle Shanahan said the mistletoe plants played an important role in the ecosystem, as did all plants. ‘In this case, the mistletoe is an excellent food source for birds and geckos, and they are another structural element in the ecosystem. It's a super-connected system.’ Found in all parts of New Zealand and on Australia's Norfolk Island, the bushy, yellow-green shrub Dendropemon caymanensis Photo Stuart Mailer grows on other trees, producing clusters of tiny green flowers and orange fruit. An extremely rare endemic mistletoe species, which had not been seen since 1991 and was Damian George, 2nd May, 2018 feared extinct, has been found on Little Cayman, paving the way for the Department of ‘Ahead of Ugadi, the curious case of the Environment to undertake a thorough survey of disappearing neem trees in Hyderabad’ the plant for its future protection. The Terrestrial Research Unit at the DoE has been looking for Ugadi is not far away, and the special pachadi this plant for many years, and according to a that is prepared on the New Year’s Day is report in the latest edition of the DoE’s something that most of us look forward to. magazine, Flicker, the mysterious mistletoe However, one of the important ingredients of species, Dendropemon caymanensis, was finally the recipe — the neem flower — is becoming found quite by chance. increasingly hard to find. Once a common tree in households and road sides, the neem is fast Stuart Mailer, the environmental programmes disappearing from the landscape of Hyderabad. manager for the National Trust for the Cayman The neem flower, as a result, has become a Islands, was on an altogether different mission in rare commodity. Experts attribute the Little Cayman in January of this year, inspecting disappearance to a parasite called Loranthus a network of trails that have recently been longiflorus or honeysuckle mistletoe. The developed by a landowner on a large forested mistletoes anchor themselves onto the property on the island. Exploring what he said branches and suck water and nutrients directly. was a remote forest home to several rare plants They engulf entire sections of the tree blocking and one of the places where the mistletoe was the much-needed sunlight that is crucial for last seen, he spotted many ‘amazing’ plants and growth. trees. But on higher ground, where the trees gave way to shrubs, he encountered several headache At the point of attachment, haustoria penetrate bushes, the primary host for the elusive into the tissue of the host to absorb nutrients Dendropemon. and water. The places at which the parasite is attached and where the haustoria penetrate According to Mailer, after some time, some often swell into tumours. When the tree is scrambling around and careful concentration, he infested by the parasite, there will be a eventually spotted what he thought could be the considerable reduction in the yield of fruit, and elusive mistletoe, and after he and others in the leaves wilt and show unhealthy green party looked more closely, they were all colour. Neem trees can be protected by reasonably convinced it was the mistletoe, even removing the parasite in the early stages of its more so when they found more of the parasitic growth. Cutting the branch affected by plant, which he was able to photograph close up HAUSTORIUM 73 12 for the record. Comparisons of Mailer’s pictures with George R. Proctor’s description of the various mistletoe species recorded in ‘New striga resistant seeds boon for farmers’ Cayman in his seminal work about local plants, based on the shape of the leaves and the Maseno University (Kenya) scholars say they berries, it seemed that Mailer had rediscovered have developed maize and millet seed varieties the rare mistletoe. capable of resisting the notorious striga weed, promising hope to farmers who routinely lose Following his discovery, he sent his photos to out to the herb. Lead scientist Mathew Dida said the DoE, which passed them on to other the new seeds have a natural adaptation to fight international experts, who confirmed the off the destructive weed. ‘When you compare identification. The TRU then conducted an them with the normal seeds, ours have capacity initial search and identified another to suppress the growth of the weed in maize seven locations in the area where the plant was plantations, for example,’ said Prof Dida. growing. As a result, a new survey will soon be underway to ensure the plant is preserved and to help researchers understand more about this plant.

Cayman News, 6th June, 2018.

(NB This species was the subject of a note in Haustorium 65 reporting that a project had been established to try and re-find the species – which apparently proved unsuccessful.) A farmer uproots striga weeds from his farm. file ‘MSU professors team up with African photo | nmg scientists to combat Striga’ The researcher said their 16-year study has Montana State University’s department of produced maize varieties Maseno EH10, EH11 plant biology hosted scientists from twelve and EH14 and finger millet variety 60D which African countries as part of the toothpick can tolerate the weed and mature faster. The project in hopes of teaching them good weed is a common parasite in sub-Sahara agricultural practices to combat Striga or African countries including Kenya. It thrives by witch-weed in Africa. The team hopes to use siphoning nutrients and water from host plants these skills to combat the issues that the weed such as maize, sorghum and rice, weakening the causes to millions of African farmers and crops. The scientists said the varieties can improve their livelihood. cushion farmers against losses occasioned by the parasitic weed, assuring them of improved Christopher Suh a scientist, from Cameroon, harvests. ‘From the first day of planting to the was one of the twelve investigating these harvest date takes about 120 days,’ he said. Striga solutions. ‘Striga being the number one He said that the country suffers close to Sh6.7 parasite weed affecting the entire continent, so billion losses as a result of the striga weed if we succeed, then we’re going to improve the destruction. lives of 320 million people and give them a Business Daily, 5th June 2018. better future,’ Suh explained. ‘Kamuli COA asks Parliament to ban the The scientists are grateful for the university’s smoking of Striga’ willingness to help them improve farm life in Africa and hope for more universities around The Kamuli (Uganda) district deputy Chief the world to open their doors to fight the Administrative Officer (CAO), Godfrey Aduma problem. has asked the MPs committee of Agriculture to ban the smoking of Striga among locals. This Carson Vickroy - MTN News, 27th January, follows the increased use of the weed among the 2018 youth in Busoga region. According to Aduma, Striga is a deadly weed known to affect someone mentally when taken. Aduma told the legislators during their over sight role to assess the impact Striga weed has caused in Busoga region on Tuesday. He added that youth tend to dry Striga HAUSTORIUM 73 13 leaves and purple flowers, combine it with smaller holders farmers in Busoga region said tobacco for smoking hence intoxicating their apparently there is no approved pesticides for brain, which explains the increased crimes in controlling the weed, calling on Governments’ the region. intervention. Muhwezi said they offer farmers with a package of farming inputs including ‘Striga weeds are not on the list of banned fertilisers, Striga maize resistant seeds, solar narcotics in the country. ‘Apparently, it is lights and harvest drying sheets. the package is difficult to prosecute people practicing the equivalent to a loan of sh 250,000. The revolving vice. Therefore, we implore you to ensure that loan payable back within one year after the smoking Striga is an offence,’ Aduma said. farmers have harvested their yields. Muhwezi According to Aduma, over 60% of crimes warned; ‘Striga seeds are very small and mainly committed in the region is done by youth who spread through the use of contaminated seed and smoke Striga. ‘Over 200 drugs related cases equipment, surface run-off, eroded soil, wind, have been registered at Bugembe Police station animals and people. since the beginning of the year,’ he noted. ‘Uprooted Striga plants should be burned with The Iganga district Senior Agricultural officer, fire to prevent spreads to other farms. Seeds may Wilberforce Tibairira expressed fear that the remain dormant in the soil for 15–20 years,’ he weed may cause serious harm to the people’s said. lives who are smoking it since it causes serious damage to its host crop before Paul Kiwuuwa, New Vision, 31st May 2018. emerging from the soil, by producing harmful phytotoxins to the host crop. ‘The host plant's (NB We had some suspicions that this was an nutrients are depleted and energy is spent example of ‘fake news’ but we have now supporting the parasitic plant (Striga). learnt from local sources that Striga leaves Damage is severe under conditions of low are indeed being smoked by youths in Eastern rainfall and poor soil fertility. ‘explained Uganda as a substitute for marijuana, since Tibairira the latter has been banned. We would welcome any further comments on the ‘Consumption of the deadly weed is common veracity (or otherwise) of this story. Eds.) in peri-urban areas including Kamuli, Iganga, Bugiri, Mayuge, Jinja, Luuka Kaliro districts ‘High-protein corn also resistant to parasitic he said the vice is rampant in Idudi, weed’ Busembatia, Bugembe Kasambira town councils among others.’ The committee vice The world produces more corn by weight than chairperson, Robert Migadde Ndugwa any other cereal crop. Corn, also known as (Buvuma County MP, expressed fear that the maize, is a staple food in many countries. But youth may resort to planting the weed in farmers growing corn face many challenges, hidden places, to avoid police. Meanwhile such as drought, diseases, and pests. For local governments in Busoga regions should example, in sub-Saharan Africa, 20 to 80% of agree to make and pass by-laws that prevent corn yields may be lost because of a semi- and control the smoking of the deadly weed ,’ parasitic plant, Striga. In areas infested with Migadde added. Striga, farmers may even lose their entire crops.

Migadde said the committee will contact the Uganda National Crop Resources Research Institute-National Agricultural Research Organisation (NACRRI-NARO) to carry out experiments to get herbicides that control the Striga weed. The Bududa woman MP, Nalongo Justine Khainza cautioned the farmers against selling off their land to opportunists who are threatening to buy them off because of the Striga weed. During their tour, the committee found over Flowering witchweed (Striga asiatica) in a 200 acres of the maize, infested by the weed. conventionally-ploughed maize field on sandy soils in Madziwa, Zimbabwe. Photo: Christian Sharon Muhwezi, the Uganda Government Thierfelder, CIMMYT Relations analyst in charge of ‘One Acre Fund,’ a non-profit organisation serving HAUSTORIUM 73 14

In a new study, researchers from southern ‘These varieties will provide options to farmers Africa identified several varieties of corn in areas with Striga,’ says Setimela. ‘They will resistant or tolerant to Striga. Importantly, improve food security and nutrition.’ these varieties also have improved nutritional content, particularly protein. The combination EurekAlert, June 13, 2018, American Society of of Striga tolerance and improved nutrition is Agronomy key. Farmers, as well as local populations, will benefit, says Peter Setimela, a study co-author. ‘The flower that must not be named’ Setimela is a scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Some know the plant as naked broomrape. Harare, Zimbabwe. Others know it as flowered cancer root. There’s simply no way to talk about the beauty of Striga infestations can force small farmers in Orobanche uniflora without raising a lot of sub-Saharan and southern Africa to abandon eyebrows. The plant bears some of the least their farms. ‘Striga is known to affect fields attractive common names in the plant kingdom: that have poor soil fertility. Its seeds can stay Some know it as naked broomrape. The alternate in the soil for more than 15 years,’ says is no less unappealing: flowered cancer root. Setimela. ‘Many small farmers can't afford to When you have to consider which of a plant’s buy chemicals to control Striga. They may also common names is least offensive, you know you be unable to buy chemical fertilizers.’ are facing a plant with a publicity problem, a Having access to varieties of corn that can plant badly in need of an image makeover. tolerate Striga will benefit these farmers. They will be able to continue farming and growing corn in areas with Striga. The improved nutritional content of these corn varieties will also help. The varieties have a wider variety of amino acids, the building blocks of protein.

‘Typically, corn is poor in essential amino acids. Human and animal bodies can't make these amino acids. They have to be obtained from food,’ says Setimela. ‘Lack of essential amino acids can impair growth and development. It can also weaken the immune system’. Many rural populations depend on corn as a staple food. ‘But these populations often have limited access to protein sources, such as eggs, meat, and dairy products,’ says Setimela. ‘If varieties of corn can provide high-quality protein, these populations will benefit.’ Setimela and colleagues tested both typical and high-protein varieties of corn for Striga resistance in the lab and field. Photo: David Taft

Controlled conditions, such as those in the Probing naked broomrape’s common and Latin laboratory, allow researchers to conduct tests names rapidly leads down the rabbit hole of the that may not be possible in the field. But arcane. The short version of the story is that ‘ultimately, crops will be grown in farmers' ‘broomrape’ is the partially translated 16th- fields,’ says Setimela. ‘We ensured that the century name of a genus of plants, Genista: results from controlled environments also European plants called brooms. Likewise, rapum apply to field conditions.’ Field experiments is the partially translated Latin for a cluster of were carried out in three locations in tuberlike roots. Naked, though unfortunately Zimbabwe with diverse conditions. The suggestive in this context, probably simply refers researchers tested eight high-protein varieties to the plant’s leaflessness. Ferment these oral and four typical varieties of maize. They ingredients in the cask of time and the result is measured several plant characteristics, the hideous common name, naked broomrape. including yield, height, vigor, and kernel Though there are records of medieval medical weight. Researchers found four varieties of uses of the plant as an astringent healer of ‘old high-protein corn that also showed high levels green wounds’, whatever uses cancer root once of Striga tolerance and high yields. HAUSTORIUM 73 15 had for treating that disease have been lost to Haustorium Supplement – Issue 74 - in the near time. future, and will also be available via the IPPS website. Myths aside, flowered cancer root is a singular, fascinating plant to study in the field. It is an uncommon plant found in a fairly THESIS ordinary habitat, but without leaves or perennial stems, it is visible only when it Ecology and Systematics of Thonningia flowers, and generally where few think to sanguinea Vahl. (Balanophoraceae) in search. Luckily, even in New York City, old, Southern Nigeria. Oligie Imarhiagbe. PhD un-mown fields are not hard to find. Cancer Thesis. Department of Biological Science, Edo root is a parasite of such common plants as University Iyamho, Edo State, Nigeria. goldenrods, asters, saxifrages and sedums, and (Supervisor E.I. Aigbokhan, Department of Plant though I have seen these plants blooming in Biology and Biotechnology, University of Brooklyn and Queens, the fields of Staten Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.) Island and the Bronx have real potential. Superficially, cancer root appears like Indian Summary: pipe, a woodland dwelling saprophyte, a plant Thonningia sanguinea Vahl (Balanophoraceae) that feeds on decomposing plant matter. is a rare cryptic obligate holoparasitic plant Though both plants are completely without endemic to tropical Africa. Apart from its , one-flowered cancer root grows in recognition as a root parasite of forest trees, full sun, its ‘haustoria’ (specialized roots) knowledge of its biology in Nigeria is scanty. To piercing the roots of its victims, and deriving bridge the knowledge gap, this study aimed to nutrition from them, without the need to wrest address its ecology and systematics in Southern it from the soil. Nigeria.

One flowered cancer root can be found in all of To delineate its presence and current distribution the lower 48 states of the continental United range, reconnaissance surveys were conducted States, as well as in Alaska. Within a range across selected forested areas across Southern this large, the flowers will vary in color. Our Nigeria comprising; National Parks (Okomu and local cancer root flowers are particularly Cross River), Forest Reserves (Ofosu, Oba hills, beautiful, held singly on pinkish, hairy, upright Idanre and IITA), Plantation forest (RRIN, stems, they are white with a bright yellow Iyanomo) and other community managed throat, but completely covered with short secondary forests (Ehor-Nu-Wire, Okour, purple hairs that outline the flower with a Okokhuo). Historical records of T. sanguinea supernatural-looking halo. What is it that is so from literature and herbaria together with folk fascinating about parasites? Consider and ethnobotanical information from humanity’s endless flirtation with vampires, oral interviews of indigenous people from eleven leeches, even mistletoe. Parasites are iconic, ethnic groups in Nigeria (Bini, Efik, Ejagham, sometimes medically valuable, sometimes Etulo, Hausa, Igbo, Igala, Ijaw, Tiv, and Yoruba) even erotic. Perhaps we are drawn to their were used to complement records of areas otherworldly lifestyles. Perhaps, deep down, harbouring populations of T. sanguinea. Host we’d all like to try to live as malevolently as identity was determined from soil excavation Orobanche uniflora. where direct host-parasite connections to an emerged parasite were apparent. Assessments of Dave Taft, New York Times, 13th June, degree of infestation per location were 2018. determined from number of connected to each host. Habitat characteristics were inferred from vegetation and soil types HAUSTORIUM SUPPLEMENT while phenology and insect visitation regimes were monitored by bi-weekly visits to selected T. Two years ago, Chris Parker was invited to sanguinea stands. Genetic variability and present a paper at the Strigolactone meeting in structure of T. sanguinea populations in southern Nitra, Slovakia. He chose to discuss the history Nigeria were evaluated using random amplified of parasitic plants and their control, with some polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profile analysis of admitted emphasis on his own involvement. 15 randomly distributed T. sanguinea samples This paper was not published but it is felt it across its distribution range. DNA bands could be of some interest to readers of generated were analysed for similarities from Haustorium. Too long to include in the which the genetic population structure and newsletter, it will be distributed as a HAUSTORIUM 73 16 phylogenetic relationship were inferred using FORTHCOMING MEETINGS PAST and GenALEx softwares. International Conference on Legume Genetics The physical presence of Thonningia was and Genomics, May 13-17, 2019 - Dijon, observed in 25 locations but records from folk France. Contact ICLGG - C/O Vitagora - 67 taxonomy suggest a wider distribution range. rue des Godrans, 21000 DIJON. Tel.: +33 3 80 T. sanguinea showed a broad host range with 78 97 92. Email: [email protected] special preference for native trees and Includes a session on Biotic stress resistance. members of the Euphorbiaceae and . Among the common hosts trees were: Guarea The 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 30 cedrata (Meliaceae), Lophira alata June – 5 July 2019, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Ochanaceae), Musanga cecropiodes (see above). (Urticaceae), Myrianthus arboreus (Urticaceae), and Ricinodendron heudelotii (Euphorbiaceae). Only and GENERAL WEB SITES were of exotic origin. Phenologically, T. sanguinea flowers all year For individual web-site papers and reports see round with the peak during the raining season. LITERATURE Overall, incidence of female surpassed male inflorescence by approximately * these websites may need copy and paste. a 2:1 ratio. , species, were the most common floral visitors, accounting For information on the International Parasitic Plant for 55% frequency occurrence. Anatomically, Society, past issues of Haustorium, etc. see: the parasite-host interface was composed of a http://www.parasiticplants.org/ complex aggregate of composite bundles For Dan Nickrent’s ‘The Parasitic Plant Connection’ scattered within the haustorium matrix with no see: http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/ evidence of direct host-parasite vascular *For the Parasitic Plant Genome Project (PPGP) connectivity. Genetically, populations from see: http://ppgp.huck.psu.edu/ Okuor forest were the most genetically For information on the new Frontiers Journal diverse, while Cross River populations were ‘Advances in Parasitic Weed Research’ see: most homogenous. Up to 82.3% variability http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/3938/ could be explained by allelic variation within advances-in-parasitic-weed-research population. This demonstrates that T. For information on the EU COST 849 Project (now sanguinea exhibits an out-crossing strategy completed) and reports of its meetings see: which is expected in organisms with sexual http://cost849.ba.cnr.it/ breeding strategy. No IUCN red list category For a description of the PROMISE project assessment is currently available for T. (Promoting Root Microbes for Integrated Striga sanguinea but observations from this study Eradication), see: suggest that T. sanguinea prefers disturbed http://promise.nioo.knaw.nl/en/about areas in primary forests and potential threats *For PARASITE - Preparing African Rice Farmers from habitat (forest) destruction brought about Against Parasitic Weeds in a Changing by deforestation and incidence of bush fires are Environment: see http://www.parasite- major concerns. The conservation status of T. project.org/ sanguinea is therefore proposed to be Near For the Index of Orobanchaceae prepared by Óscar Threatened (NT) category. Sáchez Pedraja, Gerald Schneeweiss and others see: This study provides a comprehensive overview http://www.farmalierganes.com/Otrospdf/public of the host and preference, habitat a/Orobanchaceae%20Index.htm characteristics, phenology and some ecological For the Annotated Checklist of Host Plants of interactions of T. sanguinea in Southern Orobanchaceae, see: Nigeria. Its preference for disturbed areas of http://www.farmalierganes.com/Flora/Angiosper the forest, coupled with the fact that it is not mae/Orobanchaceae/Host_Orobanchaceae_Chec found on all soil-types, especially those prone klist.htm to leaching and erosion makes it a good bio- For information on the EWRS Working Group indicator for assessing the soil health status of ‘Parasitic weeds’ see: a forest. In situ conservation T. sanguinea may http://www.ewrs.org/parasitic_weeds.asp be necessary. For a description and other information about the Desmodium technique for Striga suppression, see: http://www.push-pull.net/

HAUSTORIUM 73 17

For information on the work of the African antikindling effect of Tapinanthus globiferus Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) growing on Ficus glumosa in pentylenetetrazole on Striga control in Kenya, including induced kindled rats. African Journal of periodical ‘Strides in Striga Management’ and Biotechnology 17(4): 73-80. [Results suggest ‘Partnerships’ newsletters, see: that extracts of T. globiferus may possess http://www.aatf-africa.org/ bioactive compounds with anti-kindling and *For Access Agriculture (click on cereals for antioxidant effect which may support its videos on Striga) see: traditional use in the management of epilepsy.] http://www.accessagriculture.org/ Akaogu, I.C., Badu-Apraku, B., Adetimirin, V.O. For information on future Mistel in 2017. Combining ability and performance of derTumortherapie Symposia see: extra-early maturing yellow maize inbreds in http://www.mistelsymposium.de/deutsch/- hybrid combinations under drought and rain-fed mistelsymposien.aspx conditions. Journal of Agricultural Science For a compilation of literature on Viscum album 155(10): 1520-1540. [The drought-resistant prepared by Institute Hiscia in Arlesheim, hybrids TZEEI 81 × TZEE1 79, TZEEI 100 × Switzerland, see: TZEEI 63 and TZEEI 64 × TZEEI 79 were the http://www.vfk.ch/informationen/literatursuch highest-yielding and most stable across e (in German but can be searched by inserting environments. They are also resistant to Striga author name). hermonthica and have the potential to contribute For the work of Forest Products Commission to food security and increased incomes in sub- (FPC) on sandalwood, see: Saharan Africa.] http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/sandalwood Akhter, G., Khan, T.A. and Zafar, A. 2018. First For 6th Mistletoe Symposium, Germany, report of Orobanche cernua parasitism on November 2015 see: Allium cepa in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/ India. Journal of Crop Improvement 32(5): 681- 09447113/22/supp/S1 689. [A first report of O. cernua attacking onion and causing severe damage.] Akiyama, S., Thijsse, G., Esser, H.J. and Ohba, H. LITERATURE 2017. Siebold and Zuccarini's type specimens and original materials from Japan, Part 11. *indicates web-site reference only Angiosperms. Dicotyledoneae 10. Journal of Items in bold selected for special interest Japanese Botany 92(5): 266-282 . [Including Items in blue relate to therapeutic uses of data on Orobanchaceae.] parasitic plants Al-Fuhaid, N. 2018. Insecticidal activities of Phyllanthus emblica, Prunus mahaleb, Cerasus Abdullah, M. and Sun IFang. 2017. Plant response mahaleb, Piper nigrum, Krameria lappacea and to environmental gradient mediated by trait Phoenix dactylifera on larvae Trogoderma and through ontogeny on common tree species granarium everts. International Journal of at two contrasting habitats in karst forest of Agriculture and Forestry 8(2): 53-59. [K. Southern Taiwan. Biosaintifika: Journal of lappacea proved to having useful potential as a Biology & Biology Education 9(2): 332-344 . repellant against T. granarium in stored wheat.] [Chamereia manillana (Opiliaceae) among the Alamgeer, Niazi, S.G., Uttra, A.M., Qaiser, M.N. species studied.] and Haseeb Ahsan. 2017. Appraisal of anti- *Abu-Lafi, S., Makhamra, S., Rayan, I., Barriah, arthritic and nephroprotective potential of W., Nasser, A., Farkh, B.A. and Rayan, A. Cuscuta reflexa. Pharmaceutical Biology 55(1): 2018. Sesamin from Cuscuta palaestina 792-798. [The results tend to support the natural plant extracts: directions for new traditional use of C. reflexa for anti-arthritic and prospective applications. PLoS ONE 13(4): nephroprotective purposes.] e0195707. Amico, G.C., Sasal, Y., Vidal-Russell, R., Aizen, (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10. M.A. and Morales, J.M. 2017. Consequences of 1371/journal.pone.0195707) [Identifying 18 disperser behaviour for seedling establishment of components of an extract of C. palaestina a mistletoe species. Austral Ecology 42(8): 900- including sesamin and two other phytosterols 907. [Concluding that the distribution and campesterol and stigmasterol, each having establishment of Tristeryx corymbosus in some record of value against cancer and Argentina is very much dependant on the confirming that sesamin originates in the marsupial frugivore Dromiciops gliroides.] parasite and is not derived from hosts.] Amini, M., Nabiabad, H.S. and Deljou, A. 2017. Abubakar, K., Yunus, A.T., Abubakar, Host-synthesized cysteine protease-specific M.R., Ugwah-Oguejiofor, J.C. inhibitor disrupts Cuscuta campestris parasitism and Muhammad, A.A. 2018. Antioxidant and in tomato. Plant Biotechnology Reports 11(5): HAUSTORIUM 73 18

289-298. [C. campestris is one of the most effect approach. African Journal of Science, important pests of tomato causing severe Technology, Innovation and Development 10: losses in yield. The inhibitory propeptide 335-344. [A survey from 2014 suggested that segment of cuscutain (a pre-pro-protein farmers adopting Integrated Striga Management produced by dodder) was transferred into (ISM) techniques achieved a 47% increase in tomato and effectively interrupted cuscutain maize yields. The ISM package apparently enzyme activity and haustoria development at involves a combination of imroved variety, the endophytic stage and reduced C. improved fertilizer and tied ridges?] campetsris vigour and fecundity.] *Bao YaZhou Yao ZhaoQun, Cao XiaoLei, Peng Andrade, C.G.C., da Silva, M.L., Torres, JinFeng, Xu Ying, Chen MeiXiu and Zhao C.M.M.E., Ruschel, A.R.,da Silva, L.F., de SiFeng. 2017. Transcriptome analysis of Andrade, D.F.C. and Reis, L.P. 2017. Phelipanche aegyptiaca seed germination (Diametric growth and time of passage of mechanisms stimulated by fluridone, TIS108, Minquartia guianensis after logging at Tapajós and GR24. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0187539. National Forest, Brazil.) (in Portuguese) (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13 Pesquisa Florestal Brasileira 37(91): 299-309. 71/journal.pone.0187539) [Deep RNA [M. guianensis () is a valued timber. sequencing was used to learn more about the Resuts of a 31-year study suggested that trees mechanisms by which TIS108 and fluridone with DBH ≤50 cm have potential to be stimulate the germination of managed, due to the growth stagnation unconditioned P. aegyptiaca seeds. The results presented in larger diameter classes.] showed that only 119 differentially expressed *Aragão, T.P., dos Prazeres, L.D.K.T. Brito, genes were identified in the conditioned S.A., Rolim Neto, P.J., Rolim, L.A., Almeida, treatment vs TIS108 (strigolactone inhibitor) J.R.G.da S., Caldas, G.F.R. and Wanderley, treatment. It was suggested that TIS108 and A.G. 2018. Contribution of secondary fluridone (an inhibitor of carotenoid- metabolites to the gastroprotective effect of biosynthesis) +GA3 could be used to aqueous extract of Ximenia americana L. control P. aegyptiaca through suicidal (Olacaceae) stem bark in rats. Molecules germination.] 23(1): 112. (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- Barkman, T.J., Klooster, M.R., Gaddis, K.D., 3049/23/1/112/htm) [X. americana is used for Franzone, B., Calhoun, S., Sugumaran wound healing and for the treatment of gastric Manickam, Vessabutr, S., Sasirat, S. and Davis, disorders in Brazil. This study confirms that it C.C. 2017. Reading between the : hosts as has gastroprotective activity mediated in part islands for extreme holoparasitic plants. by -SH, NO and antisecretory activity. This American Journal of Botany 104(9): 1382-1389. antiulcer action is initially correlated to its [This is the second of two papers published this major constituents, procyanidins B and C and year on the population biology of (see catechin/epicatechin.] also Pelser et al. 2017). Microsatellite markers Aybeke, M. 2017. Fusarium infection causes were used to show that host vines can be phenolic accumulations and hormonal infected by more than one Rafflesia individual, disorders in Orobanche spp. Indian Journal of and that these are more closely related to each Microbiology 57(4): 416-421. [It was other than to other individuals in the population.] concluded that Fusarium oxysporum causes Barkman, T.J., Repin, R. and Sugau, J.B. 2016. The heavy hormonal disorder, triggers only parasitic plant families Loranthaceae and salicylic acid-mediated defence and induces Viscaceae in Sabah, Malaysia. Sandakania 21: intense accumulation of phenolic substances in 131-169. [52 species of Loranthaceae and an unidentified Orobanche species in Turkey.] Viscaceae are recorded, including one new Bacieczko, W., Borcz, A. and Kaszycka, E. 2017. endemic Macrosolen sp. (not named in the Orobanche pallidiflora Wimm. et Grabb. - abstract). Helixanthera pulchra, Korthalsella specimens variability and plant communities - japonica and Viscum scurruolideum are a case study of the abandoned meadow. Polish recorded for the first time in .] Journal of Natural Sciences 32(4): 671-679. Bayram, Y., Özdemİr, I., Ateș, E., Tomanovİç, [Including detailed measurements of 75 Z., Bükün, B. and Mutlu, Ç. 2018. Secondary individual O. pallidiflora gowing in a 100 host changing between aphids (Hemiptera: sq.m. area of a species-poor Molinietalia Aphididae) and their parasitoids in wheat fields community dominated by Cirsium oleraceum of Southeast Anatolian region. Munis and C. arvense in West Pomerania, Poland.] Entomology & Zoology 13(1): 309-317. Baiyegunhi, L.J.S., Hassan, M.B. and Ortmann, [Mentioning the occurrence of unspecified aphid G.F. 2018. Impact of Integrated Striga species on unspecified Orobanche species in Management (ISM) technology on maize Turkey.] productivity in northern Nigeria: A treatment HAUSTORIUM 73 19

Belay, F. 2018. Breeding sorghum for Striga called H. africana, is distinct. A key to the eight resistance: A review. Journal of Natural species of Hydnora is provided.] Sciences Research 8(5): 1-8. [A general Boydston, R.A. and Anderson, T.L. 2017. Field review.] dodder (Cuscuta pentagona) control with Biegel, U., Stratmann, N., Knauf, Y., Ruess, flumioxazin. Weed Technology 31(6): 847-851. K., Reif, M. and Wehrend, A. 2017. [The performance of flumioxazin 0.14 kg/ha in (Postsurgical adjuvant treatment with mistletoe controlling ‘Cuscuta pentagona’ (= C. extract (Viscum album ssp. album) in canine campestris?) was equivalent to the standard mammary tumors.) (in German) pendimethalin at 2- 4 kg/ha up to 4 weeks from Complementary Medicine Research 24(6): application but somewhat less effective on later 349-357. [Results suggest a lower though non- germinating parasite.] significant tumour-related death risk after Brand, J.E. and Norris, L.J. 2017. Variation in oil postsurgical V. album therapy in female dogs content and tree size between six geographically suffering from canine mammary separate Santalum spicatum families, established adenocarcinomas. The therapy was well near Narrogin, Western Australia. Australian tolerated by the patients.] Forestry 80(5): 294-298. [Discussing the Bigagli, E., Cinci, L., D'Ambrosio, M. and Luceri, variation in various parameters between 6 C. 2017. Pharmacological activities of an eye ‘families’ of S. spicatum, presumably from drop containing Matricaria chamomilla and different sites.] Euphrasia officinalis extracts in UVB-induced Brun, G., Braem, L., Thoiron, S., Gevaert, K,, oxidative stress and inflammation of human Goormachtig, S. and Delavault, P. 2018. Seed corneal cells. Journal of Photochemistry and germination in parasitic plants: what insights can Photobiology. B, Biology 173: 618-625. [The we expect from strigolactone research? Journal findings suggest that an eye drop containing of Experimental Botany 69(9): 2265-2280. [The M. chamomilla and E. officinalis extracts germination process of parasitic plants has exerts positive effects against UVB induced probably undergone numerous selective pressure oxidative stress and inflammation and may be events in the course of evolution, in that the useful in protecting corneal epithelial cells perception of host-derived molecules (such as from UVB exposure.] strigolactones) is a necessary condition for seeds Boddey, R. M., Fosu, M., Atakora, to germinate. In this review, the authors illustrate W.K., Miranda, C.H.B., Boddey, to what extent conclusions from research into L.H., Guimaraes, A.P. and Ahiabor, B.D.K. strigolactones could be applied to better 2017. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) crops in understand the biology of parasitic plants.] Africa can respond to inoculation with Bruschi, P., Urso, V., Solazzo, D., Tonini, M. rhizobium. Experimental Agriculture 53(4): and Signorini, M.A. 2017. Traditional 578-587. [Noting that where cowpea in knowledge on ethno-veterinary and fodder plants Mozambique was infested by Alectra vogelii, in South Angola: an ethnobotanic field survey in inoculation with a Brazilian strain of Mopane woodlands in Bibala, Namibe province. Rhizobium, substantial yield increases were Journal of Agriculture and Environment for recorded, but not clear from the abstract International Development 111(1): 105-121. whether Alectra was affected.] [Ximenia americana among the ten most Bodungen, U. von, Ruess, K., Reif, M. and Biegel, commonly used species, for respiratory tract U. 2017. Combination therapy with radiation problems.] and adjuvant mistletoe extract (Viscum album Bulíř, P. 2017. Extent of infection by Viscum album L.) for the treatment of oral malignant L. and changes in its occurrence on ornamental melanoma in dogs: a retrospective study. woody species in the locality of Lednice (Czech Complementary Medicine Research 24(6): Republic). Folia Horticulturae 29(2): 123-134. 358-363. [Results suggest that V. album extract [V. album recorded in over 1300 trees, is safe and seems to improve the survival time comprising 42 species, mainly in Acer in dogs after radiation therapy for oral campestre, A platanoides, A. pseudoplatanus, melanoma. However, the compared groups Crataegus monogyna, Robinia pseudoacacia, were small and a study with a larger Tilia cordata and T. platyphyllos, T. cordata population should be of interest.] being the most seriously affected. The number of *Bolin, J.F., Lupton, D. and Musselman, L.J. host species had increased by 18 over a 20-year 2018. Hydnora arabica (Aristolochiaceae), a period, and included Aesculus × marylandica, new species from the Arabian Peninsula and a Fraxinus biltmoreana, Magnolia hypoleuca × key to Hydnora. Phytotaxa 338. tripetala and Malus × moerlandsii, perhaps for (https://biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/view/phy the first time.] totaxa.338.1.8) [Detailed morphological Bulut, G., Bozkurt, M.Z. and Tuzlacı, E. 2017. The studies indicate that this taxon, previously preliminary ethnobotanical study of medicinal HAUSTORIUM 73 20

plants in Ușak (Turkey). Marmara experiments against Phelipanche aegyptiaca Pharmaceutical Journal 21(2): 305-310. resulting in increased yield of tomato.] (Including reference to the use of Viscum Chen ZhuLin and Wang XueFeng. 2018. album ssp. album for treatment of diabetes and (Classification of sandalwood trunk area in hypertension.] damaged by Zeuzera coffeae Nietner in complex Bulut, G., Haznedaroğlu, M.Z., Doğan, A., Koyu, background.) (in Chinese) Journal of Beijing H. and Tuzlacı, E. 2017. An ethnobotanical Forestry University 40(1): 74-82. [The paper study of medicinal plants in Acipayam provides a new classification method for (Denizli-Turkey). Journal of Herbal Medicine sandalwood trunk regions attacked by coffee 10: 64-81. [Also referring to Viscum album carpenter moth Z. coffeae, by digital image being among the more imporatnt plants used in processing and providing a method for early tradiional medicine.] identification and damage rate calculation from Burckhardt, D., Díaz, F. and Queiroz, D.L. 2017. insect pests.] Four new neotropical Trioza species associated *Cheng Dan, Murtaza, G., Ma SuYa, Li Lingling, Li with Loranthaceae () and comments XinJie, Tian FangZe, Zheng JunChao and Lu Yi. on mistletoe inhabiting psyllids (Hemiptera, 2017. In silico prediction of the anti-depression Psylloidea). Alpine Entomology 1: 91-108. mechanism of a herbal formula (Tiansi Liquid) [Two of the new species occurring in Brazil containing Morinda officinalis and Cuscuta and Chile are monophagous on Struthanthus chinensis. Molecules 22(10): 1614. uraguensis and Tripodanthus acutifolius (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- respectively. A third is narrowly oligophagous 3049/22/10/1614/htm) [Results support the use on a Tristerix sp. Host plant and of M. officinalis and C. chinesis in the treatment biogeographical patterns of mistletoe feeding of depression but the mechanism of action is psyllids around the world are briefly uncertain.] discussed.] Chepchirchir, R.T., Macharia, I., Murage, Bürzle, B., Schickhoff, U., Schwab, N., Oldeland, A.W., Midega, C.A.O. and Khan, Z.R. 2017. J., Müller, M., Böhner, J., Chaudhary, Impact assessment of push-pull pest R.P., Scholten, T. and Dickoré, W.B. 2017. management on incomes, productivity and Phytosociology and ecology of treeline poverty among smallholder households in ecotone vegetation in Rolwaling Himal, Nepal. eastern Uganda. Food Security 9(6): 1359-1372. Phytocoenologia 47(2): 197-220. [Including [A survey of 560 farms in several districts of reference to a Pedicularis cf. microcalyx- Uganda found a good correlation between maize Rhododendron anthopogon community.] yields and prosperity level, and the degree of Çetİn, E.S., Tetİker, H., Çelİk, Ö.İ., Yılmaz, N. adoption of push-pull technology involving the and Ciğercİ, I.H. 2017. Methotrexate-induced use of Desmodium spp. for reduction of maize nephrotoxicity in rats: protective effect of stalk borer and Striga hermonthica infestation. mistletoe (Viscum album L.) extract. Conversely, the risk of being below the poverty Complementary Medicine Research 24(6): line was reduced from 48% to 28%.] 364-370. [The study demonstrated that a V. Ciobanu, V.G., Visan, A.L. Paun, A. and Bogdanof, album preparation ‘Helixor’ markedly reduced G. 2017. Experimental research regarding the induced acute oxidative stress and magnetic separation of seeds after their surface nephrotoxicity in rats through its antioxidant conditions using two moistening liquids.16th and anti-inflammatory properties.] International Scientific Conference ‘Engineering Chai, A.L., Li, P.L., Guo, W.T., Li, B.J. for Rural Development’, Jelgava, Latvia, 24 - 26 and Aisimutuola, P. 2018. First report of May 2017: 1000-1005. [Discussing the magnetic Fusarium acuminatum wilt in the broomrape separation of seeds of Cuscuta from crop seed parasite of processing tomato in China. Plant and proposing improvement by variation of the Disease 102 (3): 676-677. [F. acuminatum drum speed and the use of wetting agents for (also referred to as Gibberella acuminata in better adhesion of the iron powder.] the astract) reported infecting Phelipanche Colbach, N., Bockstaller, C., Colas, F., Gibot- aegyptiaca on tomato in Xinjiang Province.] Leclerc, S., Moreau, D., Pointurier, O. and Chen Jie, Ma YongQing and Xue QuanHong. Villerd, J. 2017. Assessing broomrape risk due 2018. (Use of microorganisms in controlling to weeds in cropping systems with an indicator parasitic root weed Orobanche spp.) (in linked to a simulation model. Ecological Chineae) Zhongguo Shengtai Nongye Xuebao Indicators 82: 280-292. [Parasite risk depended / Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture 26(1): on crop rotation, sowing and harvest dates, 49-56. [Streptomyces amissocaesilis controlled tillage, herbicides and mechanical weeding. O. cumana in pot experiments, while S. Early summer-emerging weed species increased pactum proved effective in both pot and field parasite risk. No other notable correlations were found, indicating that parasite risk results from a HAUSTORIUM 73 21

weed community of interacting species, and americana polysaccharide rich fractions . not simply from individual weed species. An Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia 27(3): 339- advice table was built to summarize and 345. [Concluding that the polysaccharide rich explain the effects of crop management fractions of X. americana bark inhibit peripheral practices on weed-mediated parasite risk.] inflammatory nociception and are well tolerated Colwell, A.E.L., Watson, K.C. and Schneider, by animals.] A.C. 2017. A new species of Aphyllon Dai WenKui, Kadiori, E.L., Wang QingFeng (Orobanchaceae) parasitic on Galium in the and Yang ChunFeng. 2017. Pollen limitation, Western USA. Madroño 64(3): 99-107. plasticity in floral traits, and mixed mating [Describing A. epigalium distinguished by its system in an alpine plant Pedicularis host preference for Galium, by having 2-4 siphonantha (Orobanchaceae) from different yellow flowers per stem, and pedicels longer altitudes. Journal of Systematics and Evolution than the stem. Two subspecies are described, 55(3): 192-199. [Studying variation in the differing from one another in flower size, success of by bumble bee and seed corolla lobe shape, host preference, geographic set in populations of P. siphonantha associated range, and nuclear and plastid genetic with differing flower morphology and longevity markers.] of flowering at differing elevations in Wuhan, Cui, S., Wada, S., Tobimatsu, Y., Takeda, Y., China.] Saucet, S.B., Takano, T., Umezawa, T., Dang Ngoc Quang and 11 others. 2018. Shirasu, K. and Yoshida, S. 2018. Host lignin Balanochalcone, a new chalcone from composition affects haustorium induction in Balanophora laxiflora Hemsl. Natural Product the parasitic plants Phtheirospermum Research 32(7): 767-772. [9 compounds japonicum and Striga hermonthica. New identified in an extract from B. laxiflora in Phytologist 218(2): 710-723. [The complex Vietnam including several with anti-cancer and elegant communication between host and properties.] parasite has received a great deal of study Dénou, A., Koudouvo, K., Togola, A., Haïdara, recently. This work reports that high M., Dembélé, S.M., Ballo, F.N., Sanogo, concentrations of lignin polymers induced R., Diallo, D. and Gbeassor, M. 2017. haustorium formation. Treatment with laccase, (Traditional knowledge on antimalarial plants a lignin degradation enzyme, promoted having analgesic properties, used in Bamako haustorium formation at low concentrations.] District (Mali).) (in French) Journal of Applied Czenze, Z.J. and Thurley, T. 2018. Weather and Biosciences 112: 10985-10995. [Among 54 demographics affect Dactylanthus flower species studied, Cassytha filiformis is noted to be visitation by New Zealand lesser short-tailed threatened due to over-use for traditional bats. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 42(1): medicinal purposes.] 80-84. [Studying the pattern of visits by the bat *Dimitrijevic, A and Horn, R. 2018. Sunflower Mystacina tuberculatai pollinating the hybrid breeding: from markers to genomic threatened holoparasitic ‘wood rose’ selection. Frontiers in Plant Science 17 January Dactylanthuis taylorii and finding that the 2018. majority of visits are by males and juveniles on (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpl warm nights,] s.2017.02238/full) [Advances in technologies da Silva, F.P. and Fadini, R.F. 2017. and the availability of the sunflower genome Observational and experimental evaluation of sequence made novel approaches on the whole hemiparasite resistance in trees in the urban genome level possible, such as production of afforestation of Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Acta large amounts of SNP markers for high density Amazonica 47(4): 311-319. [Passovia maps and candidate gene based association theloneura was the most abundant mistletoe, studies. Genomic selection and integrative parasitizing 59 individuals, while Oryctanthus approaches can successfully address complex florulentus was found on only 3 trees. The quantitative traits in sunflower and will help to most abundant host and that most affected by speed up sunflower breeding programs in the P. theloneura was mango. Seed placement future.] studies showed that the native Handoanthus Duquesnel, J.A., Maschinski, J., McElderry, serratifolius is relatively resistant.] R., Gann, G.D., Bradley, K. and Cowan, E. da Silva-Leite, K.E.S., Assreuy, A.M.S., 2017. Sequential augmentation reveals life Mendonça, L.F., Damasceno, L.E.A., de history and suitable conditions for colonization Queiroz, M.G.R., Mourão, P.A.S., Pires, A.F. of the rare mahogany mistletoe in south Florida. and Pereira, M.G. 2017. Polysaccharide rich Restoration Ecology 25(4): 516-523. [To fractions from barks of Ximenia americana enhance populations of Phoradendron rubrum, inhibit peripheral inflammatory nociception in sowing fresh seeds in dry periods from mice: antinociceptive effect of Ximenia introduced versus wild plants onto small HAUSTORIUM 73 22

diameter trees (<20 cm dbh) that had branch *Endharti, A.T. and Permana, S. 2017. Extract from diameters 15-20 mm resulted in the greatest mango mistletoes Dendrophthoe pentandra colonization success. But development is slow! ameliorates TNBS-induced colitis by regulating - 100 days to germinate, 1.6 years for CD4+ T cells in mesenteric lymph nodes. BMC cotyledon emergence, and over 4.7 years to Complementary and Alternative Medicine 17: produce fruits.] 468. *Dzotam, J.K. and Kuete, V. 2017. Antibacterial (https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentra and antibiotic-modifying activity of methanol l.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12906-017-1973-z) extracts from six Cameroonian food plants [The results of studies in suggest that against multidrug-resistant enteric bacteria. extracts of D. pentandra have good activity in BioMed Research International 2017: ID reversing the induced colitis in mice.] 1583510. Erenturk, S. and Korkut, Ö. 2018. Effectiveness of (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2017/ activated mistalea (Viscum album L.) as a 1583510/) [Extracts from Coula edulis heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel partial (Olacaceae) were particularly active against E. hydrogenation. Renewable Energy 117: 374-379. coli.] [Even a small amount of activated V. album Ekawa, M. and Aoki, K. 2017. Phloem-conducting showed high catalytic activity for the partial cells in haustoria of the root-parasitic plant hydrogenation reaction and can be recommended Phelipanche aegyptiaca retain nuclei and are as a potential catalyst for the process.] not mature sieve elements. Plants 6(4): 60. Fadini, R.F., Fischer, E., Castro, S.J., Araujo, A.C., [Phloem-type cells in the haustoria of P. Ornelas, J.F. and de Souza, P.R. 2018. Bat and aegyptiaca contained nuclei but not callose- bee pollination in Psittacanthus mistletoes, a rich sieve plates, indicating that phloem- genus regarded as exclusively conducting cells in haustoria differ from hummingbird‐pollinated. Ecology 99(5): 1239- conventional sieve elements. Further genetic 1241. [Field studies in Brazil confirm that unlike study suggested that the formation of other Psittacanthus spp., P. acinarius and P. plasmodesmata with large size exclusion limits eucalyptifolius are polllinated by the bats is independent of nuclear degradation and Glossophaga soricana and Phyllostomus disclor callose deposition. ] and by the several bee species, respictively.] El-Refaey, R., Rashwan, E. and Ramadan, E. Fikriani, W.D., Mulyaningsih, T. and Aryanti, E. 2017. Effect of dodder weed (Cuscuta 2017. Study of mistletoe in Joben Resort forest epilinum L.) control on straw, seed and fiber Mount Rinjani Lombok. Biosaintifika: Journal yields of three varieties of flax "Linum of Biology & Biology Education 9(2): 304-310. usitatissimum L.". In: Kovačević, D. (ed.) VIII [Recording Amyema cuernosensis, A. tristis, A. International Scientific Agriculture enneantha, Macrosolen retusus and Scurrula Symposium, "Agrosym 2017", Jahorina, atropurpurea on 23 hosts species, the Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 2017. Book commonest being Ficus septica. S. atropurpurea of Proceedings 2017: 221-231. [In field trials the most aggressive.] in Egypt, C. epilinum was selectively Fondevilla, S., Flores, F., Emeran, A.E., Kharrat, M. controlled in flax by clethodim and/or and Rubiales, D. 2017. High productivity of dry metsulam, also benzoic acid, applied 30 days pea genotypes resistant to crenate broomrape in after sowing and yields of stem and seed were Mediterranean environments. Agronomy for significantly increased. Not clear whether Sustainable Development 37(6): 61. [Studying control of other weeds might have contributed yhe levels and stability of partial resistance in to the benefits. Hand weeding was slightly dry pea varieties to Orobanche crenata across superior to the herbicide treatments.] Spain, Tunisia and Egypt. Identifying lines J26 *Eligio-García, L., Pontifez-Pablo, E., Pérez- and J26-2 as having the widest and most stable Gutiérrez, S. and Jiménez-Cardoso, E. 2017. resistance. J3 showed a different pattern across Antigiardial effect of kramecyne in environments. Egypt was best for selecting high experimental giardiasis. Evidence-based reistance.] Complementary and Alternative Medicine *Frailey, D.C., Chaluvadi, S.R., Vaughn, 2017: ID 6832789. J.N., Coatney, C.G. and Bennetzen, J.L. 2018. (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2017 Gene loss and genome rearrangement in the /6832789/) [Kramecyne, an anti-inflammatory plastids of five hemiparasites in the family compound isolated from methanolic extract of Orobanchaceae. BMC Plant Biology 18(30). Krameria cytisoides, does not present toxicity (https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/trac to Mongolian gerbils even at doses of 5,000 k/pdf/10.1186/s12870-018-1249-x) [Aureolaria mg/kg and provided satisfactory control of virginica had the most similar genome content Giardia intestinalis.] to the non-parasitic Lindenbergia philippensis while Buchnera americana, Striga HAUSTORIUM 73 23

hermonthica, S. aspera and S. forbesii all 102. [Many parameters studied in sunflower had enlargements of their plastomes infected with O. cumana, the most significant (chloroplast genomes), primarily caused by being be the head diameter and seeds per head.] expansion within the large inverted repeats Gong PengFei, Zhao QingSheng and Zhao Bing. (IRs) that are a standard plastome feature.] 2017. (Study on ultrasonic-vacuum drying Franke, A.C., van den Brand, G.J., Vanlauwe, B. dynamics of Cistanche deserticola slices.) (in and Giller, K.E. 2018. Sustainable Chinese) Food Research and Development intensification through rotations with grain 38(9): 10-13. legumes in sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Goyet, V., Billard, E., Pouvreau, J.B., Lechat, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 261: M.M., Pelletier, S., Bahut, M., Monteau, 172-185. [Reviewing 44 publications reporting F., Spíchal, L., Delavault, P., Montiel, G. comparisons of continuous cereal with a and Simier, P. 2017. Haustorium initiation in the cereal/legume rotation, finding an overall obligate parasitic plant Phelipanche ramosa benefit of 0.49 ton grain yield/ha, greatest in involves a host-exudated cytokinin signal. maize, less in sorghum or millet. Residual Journal of Experimental Botany 68(20): 5539- effects were greater after soyabean and 5552. [Root exudates from Brassica napus groundnut than after cowpea. Other aspects ae triggered the expression of cytokinin-responsive discussed.] genes during early haustorium development in Fu WenGui, Yan ZhiQiang, Zhai ShaoQin, Zhu germinated seeds, and bio-guided UPLC-ESI(+)- MaiXun, Zheng Hua and Sun XingZhong. /MS/MS analysis showed that these exudates 2017. Study of Cuscuta chinensis Lam. in contain a cytokinin with dihydrozeatin Nuhuang Fuzheng Oral Liquid by Thin Layer characteristics. The results suggest that Chromatography. Medicinal Plants 8(5): 6-10. cytokinins from host roots play a major role in *Gaisberger, H.and 20 others. 2017. Spatially haustorium formation and aggressiveness in P. explicit multi-threat assessment of food tree ramosa.] species in Burkina Faso: a fine-scale approach. *Griebel, A., Watson, D. and Pendall, E. 2018. PLoS ONE 12(9) e0184457. Mistletoe, friend and foe: synthesizing (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10. ecosystem implications of mistletoe infection. 1371/journal.pone.0184457) [Assessing the Environmental Research Letters 12(11): threats to Ximenia americana and 15 other pp.115012. food tree species of overexploitation, (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748- overgrazing, fire, cotton production, mining 9326/aa8fff/pdf) [Providing a detailed and climate change. For X. americana the discussion of the relative beneficial and adverse main threats are climate change, cotton effects of mistletoes in ecosytems in the light of production, fire and over-exploitation.] climate change.] Gbadamosi, I.T., Raji, L.A., Oyagbemi, A.A. and Guerra, T.J., Pizo, M.A. and Silva, W.R. 2018. Host Omobowale, T.O. 2017. Hypolipidemic effects specificity and aggregation for a widespread of Olax subscorpioidea Oliv. root extract in mistletoe in Campo Rupestre vegetation. Flora experimental rat model. African Journal of (Jena) 238: 148-154. [Psittacanthus robustus Biomedical Research 20(3): 293-299. [This occurred on 8 hosts species but mainly on result suggests that an ethanol extract of O. Vochysiathyrsoides, Oualea cordata, Trembleya subscorpioidea at 200 and 400 mg/kg bw laniflora and Miconia ferruginata and possesses hypolipidemic effects on diet especially in taller host trees within rocky induced hyperlipidemic rats.] outcrop patches in campo rupestre in Brazil. Ghantous, K.M. and Sandler, H.A. 2017. Results of the survey are discussed in relation to Evaluations of pre- and postemergence plant-plant, bird-plant and fire-plant that might herbicides for dodder management in shape infection dynamics of this widespread cranberry. In: Olmstead, J.W. (ed.) Acta species.] Horticulturae 1180: 379-386. [Eight herbicides Guo FangBin, Wang SiHai, Wang Juan, Zhu screened in greenhouse trials for activity Feng, Chen ZhongHua and Yuan XiaoLong. against Cuscuta gronovii. Of these flumioxazin 2018. (Fruit yield and characters of wild is being further tested in the field for Malania oleifera, a rare plant species in selectivity pre-emergence in cranberry and southwest China.) (in Chinese) Guangxi Zhiwu / imazethapyr post-emergence.] Guihaia 38(12): 57-64. [Studies on Malania Gisca, I., Joita-Pacureanu, M., Clapco, S. oleifers (Olacaceae) across southeast Yunnan and Duca, M. 2017. Influence of broomrape on and west Guangxi, confirm abundant phenotypic some productivity indices of sunflower. diversity, which can provide various sources of Lucrări Științifice, Universitatea de Stiinte excellent character selection for oriented Agricole Și Medicină Veterinară "Ion Ionescu cultivation and exploitation for conservation and de la Brad" Iași, Seria Agronomie 60(2): 97- as a source of nervonic acid.] HAUSTORIUM 73 24

Haakonsson, J and Mailer, S. 2018. Dendropemon Orobanche minor, Striga hermonthica and S. caymanensis’ rediscovery. Flicker 36: 6-8. gesnerioides.] [See Press Report above.] Harmankaya, A. and Özcan, A. 2017. (Effect of Haan, N.L., Bakker, J.D. and Bowers, M.D. 2018. different doses of mistletoe lectin-I on the levels Hemiparasites can transmit indirect effects of tumor necrosis factor-α, nitric oxide, total from their host plants to herbivores. Ecology antioxidant and oxidant capacity in rabbits.) (in 99(2): 399-410. [Showing that the host on Turkish) Van Veterinary Journal 28(1): 41-45. which Castilleja levisecta was growing [Mistletoe lectin-1 caused alterations in the influenced the size and leaf N of the parasite, levels of tumour necrosis factor and nitric oxide and this in turn influenced the size and success and showed an acute antioxidant effect.] of the lepidopteran herbivore Euphydryas Heer, N., Klimmek, F., Zwahlen, C., Fischer, M., editha.] Hölzel, N., Klaus, V.H., Kleinebecker, T. , Hailu, G., Khan, Z.R., Pittchar, J.O. and Ochatum, Prati, D. and Boch, S. 2018. Hemiparasite- N. 2017. Impact of field days on farmers' density effects on grassland plant diversity, knowledge and intent to adopt push pull composition and biomass. Perspectives in Plant technology in Uganda. International Journal of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 32: 22-29. Agricultural Extension 5(3): 31-143. [In a [Studying different levels of Rhinanthus survey of 849 farmers over 75% cited push- alectrophorus in a grassland community. Species pull technology as effective in controlling richness was greatest at 31% R. alectrophorus Striga hermonthica and stemborer, improving but yield reduced by 26%. At over 60% both soil fertility and yields of cereals, Rhinanthus, species richness was even lower providing quality fodder. Adoption of the than in its absence. Increased Rhinanhtus technique depended on farmers seeing the favoured smaller plant species.] technique on demonstration plots rather than Hettenhausen, C. and 12 others. 2017. Stem just being told about it.] parasitic plant Cuscuta australis (dodder) Hailu, G., Pttchar, J.O., Khan, Z. and Ochatum, transfers herbivory-induced signals among N. 2017. Perceived preference of radio as plants. Proceedings of the National Academy agricultural information source among of Sciences of the of America smallholder farmers in Uganda. International 114(32): E6703-E6709. Journal of Agriultural Extension 5(3): 119- (http://www.pnas.org/content/114/32/E6703) 130. [A survey establishing the wide variety of [An elegant study showing that C. australis preferred radio stations and times of listening.] can act as bridge between soyabean plants, Halouzka, R., Tarkowski, P., Zwanenberg, B. and effectively transferring signals which inhibit Zeljković, C.S. 2018. Stability of strigolactone attack by Spodoptera litura. The link can be analog GR24 toward nucleophiles. Pest effective across several soyabean plants over Management Science 74(4): 896-904. at least 100 cm.] [Stability of GR24 in the presence of different Ho, A. and Costea, M. 2018. Diversity, evolution nucleophiles was examined. Results indicate and taxonomic significance of fruit in Cuscuta that hydrolysis of GR24 proceeds via the (dodder, ); the evolutionary Michael addition–elimination mechanism. This advantages of indehiscence. Perspectives in hydrolysis was found to occur rather rapidly in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 32: 1- Tris-HCl and HEPES buffers and thus these 17. [The fruit of dodder is a capsule. Dodders buffers may be unsuitable for experiments with are one of the few genera to have both dehiscent strigolactones. So far, hydrolysis experiments and indehiscent modes. The authors show that have been conducted at relatively high the indehiscent mode has evolved several times concentrations of strigolactones, in this case 33 from the dehiscent mode. They also postulate mM, it may be useful to obtain data at the role of flotation in indehiscent fruits, biological concentrations at which especially in the widespread C. gronovii, a strigolactones induce parasite seed germination species of wetlands in North America.] – lower than µM levels.] Holá, E.; Kocková, J.; Těšitel, J. 2017. DNA Harada, K. and 10 others. 2017. Enhanced barcoding as a tool for identification of host production of nojirimycin via Streptomyces association of root-hemiparasitic plants. Folia ficellus cultivation using marine broth and Geobotanica 52(2): 227-238. [Identification of inhibitory activity of the culture for seeds of DNA retrieved from host root fragments parasitic weeds. Journal of Pesticide Science attached to haustoria showed that Rhinanthus 42(4): 166-171. [Describing techniques for major and R. minor were mainly parasitic on enhancing the production of nojorimycin in a grasses and legumes, while Melampyrum S. ficellus broth to the extent that it had activity nemorosum was mainly parasitic on Rosaceae equivalent to a ‘standard solution’ of and .] nojorimycin for inhibiting the germination of HAUSTORIUM 73 25

Holbrook-Smith, D. and McCourt, P. 2018. Experimental Botany 69(9): 2319-2331. [A Chemical screening for strigolactone receptor novel class of strigolactone mimics, methyl antagonists using Arabidopsis thaliana. phenolactonoates (MPs), was developed based Methods in Molecular Biology 1795: 117-126. on the structure of non-canonical strigolactone, [Antagonists for strigolactone receptors serve methyl carlactonoate. MP1 was more active than as potentially important tools in understanding GR24 in modulating Arabidopsis root mechanisms of strigolactone perception from architecture and inhibiting rice tillering but both the perspective of host plants and of their slightly less active in Striga seed germination. parasites. This document describes the The substituents on the benzene ring in MPs procedures required to use phenotypic affect these biological activities to different screening approaches to uncover likely extents.] strigolactone receptor antagonists.] Jasiczek, N., Giertych, M.J. and Suszka, J. 2017. Hozumi, A., Bera, S., Fujiwara, D., Obayashi, (Influence of mistletoe (Viscum album) on the T., Yokoyama, R., Nishitani, K. and Aoki, K. quality of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) seeds.) 2017. Arabinogalactan proteins accumulate in (in Polish) Sylwan 161(7): 558-564. the cell walls of searching hyphae of the stem [Confirming that Viscum album has a small but parasitic plants, Cuscuta campestris and significant negative impact on the size of seeds Cuscuta japonica. Plant and Cell Physiology and cones of P. sylvestris and reduces seedling 58(11): 1868-1877. [Results from studies with vigour.] C. campestris on Arabidopsis thaliana and C. Jebri, M., Ben Khalifa, M., Fakhfakh, H., Perez- japonica on soyabean, suggest that Vich, B. and Velasco, L. 2018. Genetic diversity arabinogalactan proteins are involved in and race composition of sunflower broomrape hyphal elongation and adhesion to host cells populations from Tunisia. Phytopathologia and in the adhesion between the epidermal 56(3): 421-430. [O. cumana was first seen in tissues of Cuscuta and its host.] Tunisia in 2010. It is believed that the first *Hu GaoSheng, Wu TianRan, Chang Yue, Zhan invasion was by race E but subsequently race G XinYi and Jia JingMing. 2018. Wound stress, has been detected and is threatening to spread.] an unheeded factor for echinacoside Jia JianXin, Yan XuSheng, Cai ZhiPing, Song accumulation in Cistanche deserticola Y.C. Wei, Huo DongSheng, Zhang BaiFeng, Wang Ma. Molecules 23(4): 893. He and Yang ZhanJun. 2017. The effects of (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- phenylethanoid glycosides, derived from Herba 3049/23/4/893/htm) [Results suggest that the cistanche, on cognitive deficits and antioxidant richest source of echinacoside is in the scales activities in male SAMP8 mice. Journal of and that content may be enhanced by Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part A scarification of the scales by wind-blown 80(22): 1180-1186. [Results suggest that the sand.] ability of PhG to ameliorate cognitive deficits in Ilic, B.S., Nikolic, D.M., Markovic, M.S. SAMP8 mice may be related to promotion in and Miladinovic, D.L. 2017. Essential oil of synaptic plasticity involving antioxidant Euphrasia tatarica. Chemistry of Natural processes.] Compounds 53(6): 1179-1181. [From Serbia. Jiang, N.,Ye, L.H.,Ye, L.,Yu, J.,Yang, Q.C.,Yuan, No abstract.] Q., Zhu, P.W. and Shao. Y. 2017. Effect of Iponga, D.M., Mikolo-Yobo, C., Lescuyer, mistletoe combined with carboxymethyl G., Assoumou, F.M., Levang, P., Tieguhong, cellulose on dry eye in postmenopausal women. J.C. and Ngoye, A. 2018. The contribution of International Jourrnal of Ophthalmology 10(11): NTFP-gathering to rural people's livelihoods 1669-1677. [The sutudy suggests that a Viscum around two timber concessions in Gabon. album extract in combination with Agroforestry Systems 92(1): 157-168. [Noting carboxymethyl cellulose ma relieve dry eye that Coula edulis (Olacaceae) is one of the symptoms in post-menopausal women.] most important non-timber forest products in Joita-Pacureanu, M., Rîșnoveanu, L., Anton, Gabon, and proposing methods for its G.F., Popa, M., Bran, A., Sava, E. and Marin, V. conservation.] 2017. The improvement of oil quality and Ivić, D. 2018. (Branched broomrape (Orobanche resistance to broomrape in sunflower genotypes ramosa L.) - increasing problem in tomato resistant to herbicides. Lucrări Științifice, production in Istria.) (in Croatian) Glasilo Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole Și Medicină Biljne Zaštite 18(3): 337-340. [Reporting the Veterinară "Ion Ionescu de la Brad" Iași, Seria increasing problem of O. ramosa in tomato in Agronomie 60(2): 263-268. [A general review of Croatia.] the achievements of breeding for resistance to O. Jamil, M. and 15 others. 2018. Methyl cumana in sunflower.] phenlactonoates are efficient strigolactone Jung YoungHo, Lee JaeKeun, Lee SooIn, Lee analogs with simple structure. Journal of SeungYeon, Jang RaeHa, Lee SeungHyeok, Cho HAUSTORIUM 73 26

KyuTae and You YoungHan. 2017. (Host Medicinal plants sold as anti-haemorrhagic in plant preference, parasitic site and risk the Cotonou and Abomey-Calavi markets possibility of Cuscuta pentagona Engelm, (Benin). International Journal of Biology 10(1): invasive plant in Korea.) (in Korean) Korean 17-23. [Recording that Cassytha filiformis is Journal of Environment and Ecology 31(3): among the 3 most frequently used.] 287-296. [Reporting the very wide host-range Kobiv, Y. 2017. Response of rare alpine plant of C. pentagona (= C. campestris?) and noting species to climate change in the Ukrainian particular susceptibility in the crop Setaria Carpathians. Folia Geobotanica 52(2): 217-226. italica and the endangered endemic [Noting a decline in a range of species including Scrophularia.] Pedicularis oederi.] Kakhaki, S.H.N., Montazeri, M. and Naseri, B. *Koga, C., Mabasa, S., Mazarura, U., Banwa, T. and 2017. Biocontrol of broomrape using Garwe, D. 2017. Screening of tobacco genotypes Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. orthoceras in for tolerance/resistance to Striga gesnerioides tomato crops under field conditions. infestation in Zimbabwe. Advances in Crop Biocontrol Science and Technology 27(12): Science Technology 6(1): 340. 1435-1444. [In studies in Iran, high- (https://www.omicsonline.org/open- concentration-root-dip inoculation of tomato access/screening-of-tobacco-genotypes-for- with F. oxysporum decreased Phelipanche toleranceresistance-to-striga-gesnerioides- aegyptiaca biomass significantly by 58% and infestation-in-zimbabwe-2329-8863-1000340- led to increased tomato yield. Good results 98720.html) [Screening local varieties of were also obtained with sulfosulfuron, but tobacco showed most to be susceptible to S. details of the techniques not clear from gesnerioides but genotypes K RK66 and T74 abstract.] each showed partial resistance due to low Kaplan, Z. and 12 others. 2017. Distributions of stimulant exudation.] vascular plants in the Czech Republic. Part 4. Konaté, L., Baffour, B.A. and Traoré, D. 2017. Preslia 89(2): 115-201. [Including notes and Combining ability and heterotic grouping of distribution maps for Thesium alpinum, T. early maturing provitamin A maize inbreds bavarum, T. dollineri, T. ebracteatum, T. across Striga infested and optimal growing linophyllum, T. pyrenaicum, T. ramosum and environments. Journal of Agriculture and T. rostratum.] Environment for International Development *Kaštier, P., Krasylenko, Y.A., Martinčová, M., 111(1): 157-173. [The development, deployment Panteris, E, Šamaj, J. and Blehova, A. 2018. and production of stress tolerant provitamin A Cytoskeleton in the parasitic plant Cuscuta maize is crucial to the fight against vitamin A during germination and prehaustorium deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa where maize is formation. Frontiers in Plant Science June 13: a major staple food crop. Maize hybrids were (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P evaluated for yielding and stability across MC6018488/) [A detailed study of the environments, and for Striga infestation.] cytoskeleton in C. europaea and C. monogyna Kountché, B.A., Al-Babili, S. and Haussmann, suggested it is organised in a way similar to B.I.G. 2016. Striga: a persistent problem in non-parasitic dicots while there are some millets. In: Das, I. and Padmaja, P (eds) Biotic peculiarities in the quickly senescing root and Stress Resistance in millets. 173-203. prehaustorium.] [Reviewing the latest progress in developing Kim JinSeoub, Koppula, S., Yum MunJeong, Shin resistance to Striga in millets.] GwangMo, Chae YunJin, Hong SeokMin, Lee Krause, K., Johnsen, H.R., Pielach, A., Lund, JaeDong and Song MinDong. 2017. Anti- L., Fischer, K. and Rose, J.K.C. 2018. fibrotic effects of Cuscuta chinensis with in Identification of tomato introgression lines with vitro hepatic stellate cells and a thioacetamide- enhanced susceptibility or resistance to infection induced experimental rat model. by parasitic giant dodder (Cuscuta reflexa). Pharmaceutical Biology 55(1): 1909-1919. Physiologia Plantarum 162(2): 205-218. [Results support the potential use of C. [Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum shows a chinensis in treatment of hepatofibrosis.] hypersensitive response to C. reflexa, not shown Kim SoYoung, Kim KyungChan and Lee by S. pennellii, even when grafted on to a tomato ChuHee. 2017. Mistletoe (Viscum album) rootstock. Introgression lines involving both extract targets Axl to suppress cell parents, however, show varied reaction, which proliferation and overcome cisplatin- and could be valuable in tracing the genes involved.] erlotinib-resistance in non-small cell lung Kun-Peng Jia, Lina Baz and Salim Al-Babili. 2018. cancer cells. Phytomedicine 36: 183-193. From carotenoids to strigolactones. Journal of Klotoe, J.R., Koudouvo, K., Atégbo, J.M., Experimental Botany 69(9): 2189–2204. Dandjesso, C., Dougnon, V., Loko, F., [Carotenogenesis is briefly described and an Gbeassor, M. and Dramane, K. 2018. update on strigolactone biosynthesis is provided, HAUSTORIUM 73 27

focusing on the substrate specificity and insoluble-bound phenolics and antioxidant reactions catalyzed by the activity of two Chinese mistletoes Molecules different biosynthetic enzymes.] 23(2): 359. (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- Kwolek, D., Denysenko-Bennett, M., Góralski, 3049/23/2/359/htm) [A study apparently G., Cygan, M., Mizia, P., Piwowarczyk, involving a combination of Viscum articulatum R., Szklarczyk, M. and Joachimiak, A.J. and V. liquidambaricolum (one may have been 2017. The first evidence of a host-to-parasite hyper-parasitic on the other?) from hosts mitochondrial gene transfer in Camellia assamica and Pyrus identified 18 Orobanchaceae. Acta Biologica phenolics. From either host the Viscum spp. Cracoviensia. Series Botanica 59(1): 13-22. showed potential value as a source of anti- [Presenting evidence for horizontal transfer oxidants, but especially those growing on of the mitochondrial atp6 gene from an Pyrus.] Asteraceae host into Orobanche *Li Xi, Hao BaoHai, Pan Da and Schneeweiss, coerulescens, also into 3 Phelipanche G.M. 2017. Marker development for species.] phylogenomics: the case of Orobanchaceae, a Lalsaga, W.J.A. and Drabo, I. 2017. (Evaluation plant family with contrasting nutritional modes. of 15 genotypes of rain-fed cowpea [Vigna Frontiers in Plant Science 8(November): unguiculata (L.) Walp.] in northern and pp.1973. central-western Burkina Faso.) (in French) (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpl International Journal of Biological and s.2017.01973/full) [Studies on Lindenbergia Chemical Sciences 11(6): 2756-2763. philippensis, Triphysaria versicolor, Striga [Identifying early maturing lines of cowpea hermonthica and Phelipanche aegyptiaca Nafi, Gorom local, KVX-61-1 and Komcalle; A highly flexible bioinformatic pipeline, and extra-early maturing lines C2-6-3, C2-18- BaitsFinder, built to identify putative 2, C2-27-2, IT97K-499-35 and Yiis yande, all orthologous single copy genes (SCGs) and to with immunity to the local, race 1 strain of construct bait sequences in a single workflow is Striga gesnerioides in Burkina Faso.] presented. BaitsFinder was successfully used in Larrieu, L., Sajdak, G., Cabanettes, A. a group of non-parasitic plants and is expected to and Drénou, C. 2018. (Decline of fir pectin: be broadly applicable in groups where only influences of diameter, mistletoe and local transcriptomes or partial genome data of conditions.) (in French) Forêt-Entreprise differing quality are available.] 2018(240): 6-15. [This study fails to establish Lim YaChee;,Rajabalaya, R. and David, S.R. 2017. a clear correlation between infection by A hidden treasure: the Borneo mistletoes. Viscum album and a decline in pectin thought Pharmacognosy Reviews 11(22): 153-157. to be resposible for decline in the health of the [Reviewing the antibacterial, anticancer, host Abies alba.] antiviral, antihypertensive, antioxidative, and Lefnaer, S. 2017. (Floristic novelties from the cytotoxic effects. of locally common mistleltoes Lower Austrian Weinviertel and Vienna north – Scurrula ferruginea, Macrosolen of the Danube.) (in German) Neilreichia 9: cochinchinensis and Dendrophthoe curvata – 133-142. [Including reference to Odontites and discussing their pharmacological potential.] verna, Orobanche coerulescens, O. kochii and Lin ChengWei, Lo ChiehWen, Tsai ChiaNi, Pan Thesium dollineri.] TingChun, Chen PinYin Yu MingJiun. 2018. Lepší, M. and Lepší, P. 2017. (Records of Aeginetia indica decoction inhibits hepatitis C interesting and new plants in the South virus life cycle. International Journal of Bohemian flora XXIII.) (in Czeck) Sborník Molecular Sciences 19(1): 208. Jihočeského Muzea v Českých Budějovicích, (http://www.mdpi.com/1422- Přírodní Vědy 57: 5-33. [New records are 0067/19/1/208/htm) [Among 6 decoctions noted for Lathraea squamaria.] studied, A. indica was the most active, inhibiting Li JinQing, Su ZhiPing, Chen YanPing, Qi chronic hepatitis infection, translation, and WeiZhen, Qi JiaLin, Duan XiaoHui, He LiNa replication. Mechanistically, it probably reduced and Lu Min. 2017. (Analysis on pests' replication via reducing NS5A phosphorylation intercepted situation in imported renewable at serine 235.] resources at Shandong port during 2006-2016.) Liu, B., Le, C.T., Barrette, R.L., Nickrent, D.L., (in Chinese) Journal of Food Safety and Chen, Z., Lu, L. and Vidal-Russell, R. 2018. Quality 8(11): 4120-4124. [Cuscuta australis Historical biogeography of Loranthaceae among the top 5 species intercepted.] (Santalales): Diversification agrees with *Li Qing, Yang ShiHua, Li YongQiang, Xue emergence of tropical forests and radiation of XiaoFeng, Huang YongHua, Luo songbirds. Molecular Phylogenetics and HengGuo, Zhang YiMing and Lu ZhiChao. Evolution 124:199-212. [This phylogeographic 2018. Comparative evaluation of soluble and study of the family showed that the crown group HAUSTORIUM 73 28

originated in Australasian Gondwana during e051. the Paleocene to early Eocene and aerial (http://rjb.revistas.csic.es/index.php/rjb/article/vi parasites evolved ca. 50 Ma. Diversification of ew/460/490) [The fruit (pseudodrupe) Loranthaceae occurred during a climatic morphology of Jodina has been variously optimum period that coincides with the interpreted. This study corrects previous work by dominance of tropical forests and the rapid showing that the fleshy layer of the pericarp is radiation of many bird families.] formed from the nectary disk whereas the stony Liu Chang, Li XiaoTian, Cheng RongRong, Han layer is of mesocarp origin. The ovular ZhuZhen, Yang Li, Song ZhongChen integument disintegrates during development and Wang ZhengTao. 2018. Anti-oral common thus the seed is naked and the resulting structure pathogenic bacterial active acetylenic acids is a pyrene.] from Thesium chinense Turcz. Journal of Malek, J., del Moral, L., Fernández-Escobar, J., Natural Medicines 72(2): 433-438. [Analysis Pérez-Vich, B. and Velasco, L. 2017. Racial of T. chinense, commonly used as an oral anti- characterization and genetic diversity of bacterial and anti-inflammatory herb, revealed sunflower broomrape populations from Northern a range of acetylenic acids, of which exocarpic Spain. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 56(1): 70- acid was the most active against the oral 76. [Of the 6 main populations of O. cumana pathogenic bacterial strains, Porphyromonas occurring in Castella y León, 3 were found to be gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum and race F and 3 probably race E. Their likely Streptococcus mutans.] origins, from Guadalquivir Valley and Cuenca, *Liu YanYan, Taxipulati, T., Gong YanMing, Sui are discussed.] XiaoLin, Wang XueZhao, Parent, S.É., Hu Malik, C.P. and Dheera Sanadhya. 2018. Advances YuKun, Guan KaiYun and Li AiRong. 2017. in plant science research. Journal of Plant N-P fertilization inhibits growth of root Science Research 34(1): 81-91. [Including hemiparasite Pedicularis kansuensis in natural reference to the recent research showing that grassland. Frontiers in Plant Science microRNAs from Cuscuta spp. can transfer into 8(December): 2088. the host and silence the expression of host (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/f genes.] pls.2017.02088/full) [Above-ground biomass Marin, M., Toorop, P., Powell, A.A. and Laverack, of P. kansuensis was reduced to 12% and 1% G. 2017. Tetrazolium staining predicts by 30 and 90 kg urea/ha, respectively and to germination of commercial seed lots of 39% by 100 kg P/ha as calcium phosphate. European native species differing in seed Grass growth was increased up to 3-fold. quality. Seed Science and Technology 45(1): Weight of forbs was little changed but species 151-166. [Among 112 species tested, Rhinanthus richness was reduced by 50%.] minor was found to respond only to cold Long WeiGe, Li SuPing, An JiaCheng and Zhu stratification.] ChangSan. 2017. (Analysis and evaluation of Marinov-Serafimov, P., Golubinova, I., Ilieva, A., nutritional components in Erythropalum Kalinova, S. and Yanev, M. 2017. Allelopathic scandens Blume.) (in Chinese) Food Research activity of some parasitic weeds. Acta and Development 38(24): 124-127. [Analysis Agriculturae Serbica 22 (43): 89-101. suggests that E. scandens is rich in important [Confirming ‘allelopathic’ effects of aqueous amino acids and could be a valuable extracts of Cuscuta campestris, C. epithymum, vegetable.] Phelipanche ramosa and P. mutellii on Loydi, A., Eckstein, R.L., Gebauer, T., Ludewig, germination of lettuce. Doses tested from 0.4 to K., Otte, A., Reisdorff, C., Jenen, 13% w/v.] K..and Donath, T.W. 2018. Opposite effects of Means, C. 2017. Christmas plants: hazards, history, litter and hemiparasites on a dominant grass and holiday dangers. Today's Veterinary Practice under different water regimes and competition 7(6): 17-22. [Describing the clinical signs and levels. Plant Ecology 219(2): 133-144. treatment of poisoning of cats and dogs by a [Rhinanthus spp. (R. minor or R. alectrolophu) range of species including unspecified reduced biomass of the grass Schedonorus (= Phoradendron sp.] Festuca) arundinacea while litter had the Meher, S., Ali, I., Sami, A., Ismail, M., Naheed, opposite effect. Contrary to expectation, litter N., Khan, S.A. and Ahmad, V.U. 2017. did not compensate Schedonorus biomass Screening of some medicinal plants for when Rhinanthus was present.] antibacterial activity against conjunctivitis. *Luna, M.L., Giudice, G.E., Grossi, M.A. and JAPS, Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences Gutiérrez, D.G. 2017. Development and 27(6): 2069-2074. [Santalum album included in morphology of the fruit and seed of the a wide range of species studied in Pakistan but hemiparasite genus Jodina (Cervantesiaceae). apparently not among those showing useful Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid 74(1): activity.] HAUSTORIUM 73 29

Mellado, A. and Zamora, R. 2017. Parasites sorghum has a large impact on the level of Striga structuring ecological communities: the infection.] mistletoe footprint in Mediterranean pine Moreno Moral, G., Sánchez Pedraja, Ó. and forests. Functional Ecology 31(11): 2167- Piwowarczyk, R. 2017. Contributions to the 2176. [Concluding that V. album exerts a knowledge of Cistanche (Orobanchaceae) in the strong and lasting impact on the structure and Western Palearctic. Phyton (Horn) 57(1/2): 19- dynamics of Pinus nigra forest, with 36. [Cistanche contains ca. 18 species distributed parasitized trees acting as centres for the from China to Europe and northern Africa. This establishment and growth of fleshy-fruited work discusses the taxonomy of five species woody species, which, over the long term, found in the western Mediterranean region (C. promote vegetation shifts by limiting dominant lutea, C. mauritanica, C. phelypaea, C. tinctoria pine trees and facilitating less represented and C. violacea) and provides a key to these fleshy-fruited shrubs.] species.] Mengistu, A.A., Ebabuye, Y., Tilahune, G and Mourão, F.A., Pinheiro, R.B.P., Jacobi, C.M. Gelaye, M. 2017. Determination of Orobanche and Figueira, J.E.C. 2017. Resource-directed spp. distribution and occurrence in North foraging of the Neotropical mistletoe Gondar, Ethiopia. ABC Journal of Advanced Struthanthus flexicaulis (Loranthaceae). Plant Research 6(1): 25-30. [A survey of ‘major Biology 19(4): 592-598. [Studying the pulse crops’ noting up to 87% prevalence of O. vegetative spread of S. flexicaulis on its host crenata, but no crops named, and 12% Mimosa calodendron. Spread towards, and prevalence in linseed. Xanthium strumarium attachment, occurred to both live host branches also widely attacked. Some confusion with O. and to inert netting but was stronger to the minor possible?] former.] Mesfin Abate, Temam Hussien, Bayu, W. Mousavi, E.A., Kalantari, K.M., Nasibi, F. and Fasil Reda. 2017. Screening of Ethiopian and Oloumi, H. 2018. Effects of carrageenan as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) landraces for their elicitor to stimulate defense responses of basil performance under Striga hermonthica- against Cuscuta campestris Yunck. Acta infested conditions. Plant Breeding 136(5): Botanica Croatica 77(1): 62-69. [Three 652-662. [Among 49 lines tested, 'Birhan', applications of carrageenan (an extract from the 'Gubiye', Wolegie, Zegerie, Nechmashila I, red seaweed, Chondrus crispus) before basil was Woftel, Tetron and Eyssa were identified as exposed to C. campestris resulted in 26% promising based on grain yield and Striga- reduction in the parasite and increased vigour of related traits, while Jamyo, Bobie, Gedido, the basil, apparently associated with increased Mankebar and Zengada had moderate Striga levels of PAL activity, phenols, antioxidant and numbers with low relative yield loss compared lignin, associated with defence mechanisms.] with susceptible checks. The most promising, Mrema, E., Shimelis, H. and Laing, M. 2017. Zegerie, Mankebar and Zengada, out-yielded Genetic effect of Striga resistance in sorghum the standard resistant checks 'Birhan' and genotypes. Euphytica 213(12): 280. [Using 'Gubiye' under Striga infestation.] crosses between 12 varieties of sorghum to study *Miranda, C.H.B., Favaro, S.P., Carvalho, the relative importance of their agronomic M.daC.S. and Cruz, I. 2017. (Susceptibility of characters in conjunction with the biocontrol Brazilian maize and rice cultivars to Striga sp. agent Fusarium oxysporum for performance in Mozambique.) (in Portuguese) Documentos under Striga (hermonthica?) infestation in - Embrapa Agroenergia 2017(26): pp.32. Tanzania and concluding that additive genes (https://www.infoteca.cnptia.embrapa.br/infote were predominantly responsible for the ca/handle/doc/1085330) [Presenting inheritance of Striga resistance.] information on the susceptibility of various *Muhammad Ovais, Muhammad Ayaz, Khalil, Brazilian maize and rice cultivars cultivated in A.T., Shah, S.A., Jan, M.S., Abida Mozambique, to Striga asiatica.] Raza, Muhammad Shahid and Shinwari, Z.K. Mohemed, N., Charnikhova, T., Fradin, E.F., 2018. HPLC-DAD finger printing, antioxidant, Riensatra, J., Babiker, A.G.T. and cholinesterase, and α-glucosidase inhibitory Bouwmeester, H.J. 2018. Genetic variation in potentials of a novel plant Olax nana. BMC Sorghum bicolor strigolactones and their role Complementary and Alternative Medicine 18(1). in resistance against Striga hermonthica. ( Journal of Experimental Botany 69(9): 2415- https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentral. 2430. [Strigolactones, are analyzed in the root com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12906-017-2057-9) exudates of 36 sorghum genotypes and S. [Phytochemical studies on O. nana indicate hermonthica germination and infection are antioxidant and cholinesterase inhibitory effects assessed. This study shows that the deserving further study of their neuroprotective strigolactone profile in the root exudate of and anti-Alzheimer's potential.] HAUSTORIUM 73 30

Mujezinović, O., Dautbašić, M., Mujčinović, A. concluded that ‘P. capitata could serve as a and Zahirović, K. 2017. (Characteristics of source of essential nutrients which can go a long mistletoe shrubs (Viscum album subsp. way in ameliorating most nutritional challenges austriacum (Wiesb.) Vollmann (1914)) on and may contribute remarkably to the amount of black pine in Bosnia and Herzegovina.) (in nutrients in human.’ However the presence of Croatian) Šumarski List 141(9/10): 477-483. ‘anti-nutrients’ is also mentioned and a pinch of [Noting that V. album has relatively recently salt might be needed?] become more common and is causing Ologhobo, A.D., Adejumo, I.O., Owoeye, T. significant damage and death of Pinus nigra and Esther, A. 2017. Influence of mistletoe and P. sylvatica.] (Viscum album) leaf meal on growth Nabloussi, A., Velasco, L. and Assissel, N. 2018. performance, carcass characteristics and First report of sunflower broomrape, biochemical profile of broiler chickens. Food Orobanche cumana Wallr., in Morocco. Plant and Feed Research 44(2): 163-171. Disease 102(2): 457. [A serious infestation of [Incorporation of a meal prepared from ‘V. O. cumana in Kenitra Province, Morocco most album’ ?? (growing on citrus in Nigeria) in the closely matches race G but is thought to be diet resulted in increases in alanine somewhat distinct and is proposed to be aminotransferase, urea and glucose, suggesting defined as race GKE.] its potential in place of antibiotics.] Noryśkiewicz, A.M. and Noryśkiewicz, B. 2017. Omoigui, L.O., Kamara, A.Y., Ajeigbe, H.A., Remarks on pollen representation of mistletoe Akinwale, R.O., Timko, M.P., Oyekunle, M. and (Viscum album L.). Ecological Questions 26: Bello, L.L. 2017. Performance of cowpea 19-26. [Discussing the significance of the varieties under Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) presence of fossil V. album pollen in Holocene Vatke infestation using biplot analysis. deposits in Poland, concluding that even a Euphytica 213(11): 244. [From a 3 year study single grain could represent a substantial local over 3 sites in the dry savanna area of Nigeria, it population of the mistletoe.] was concluded that lines UAM09 1046-6-1 (V7), Ocaña-Moral, S., Gutiérrez, N., Torres, A.M. and UAM09 1046-6-2 (V8) gave best results and Madrid, E. 2017. Saturation mapping of over all sites.] regions determining resistance to Ascochyta Patel, C.J., Gediya, K.M., Patel, H.K. and Patel, A blight and broomrape in faba bean using R. 2017. Control of broomrape in Bidi tobacco transcriptome-based SNP genotyping. TAG by different management practices. Indian Theoretical and Applied Genetics 130(11): Journal of Weed Science 49(1): 67-69. 2271-2282. [A study of SNP markers revealed [Methods to control Orobanche ramosa included two QTLs for Orobanche crenata resistance herbicides glyphosate, isoproturon and (Oc7 and Oc8) , Oc7 being located near to a pendimethalin applied ‘at emergence of QTL for A. fabae resistance suggested that Orobanche with irrigation’. These provided these genomic regions might encode common partial control and some increase in yield, but resistance mechanisms and could be targets for were inferior to hand weeding.] selection strategies against both pathogens.] Pavlenko, E.V. and Petrova, S.E. 2017. (Anatomy of Ogunmefun, O.T., Fasola, T.R., Saba, the roots of some northern hemiparasites A.B., Oridupa, O.A. and Adarabioyo, M.I. (Orobanchaceae).) (in Russian) Turczaninowia 2017. Haematology and serum biochemistry of 20(1): 107-117. [The root structure and alloxaninduced diabetic rats administered with haustorial formation were studied in Bartsia extracts of Phragmanthera incana (Schum.) alpina, Castillejaj lapponica, Pedicularis Balle. African Journal of Pharmacy and sceptrum-carolinum, P. lapponicus, Rhinanthus Pharmacology 11(43): 545-553. [A detailed minor ssp. groenlandicus. A main precondition study of the biochemical effects of an extract providing the possibility of rapid haustorium of P. incana (from cola and cocoa hosts), development is the long life of the primary concluding that, regardless of the host, it outermost tissue of the root. Formation of decreased blood glucose and cholesterol levels haustorial hairs is one of the earliest structural and also alleviated other complications of events and the division and elongation of cells in diabetes such as liver and kidney injury and the outer tissues play a major role in the early may possess a hepatoprotective effect.] stages of endophyte development. The parasitic Ohikhena, F.U., Wintola, O.A. and Afolayan, A.J. life-style influences the inner structure of the 2017. Proximate composition and mineral vascular cylinder including the reduction of analysis of Phragmanthera capitata (Sprengel) phloem conductive elements and the Balle, a mistletoe growing on rubber tree. accumulation of large amounts of starch in the Research Journal of Botany 12(1): 23-31. xylem. It was found that the haustoria can [Conclusions from a study of the composition penetrate as well as roots.] of leaves of P. capitata growing on rubber HAUSTORIUM 73 31

Pelser, P.B., Nickrent, D.L., Gemmill, C.E.C. and structured among hosts? A case study on Barcelona, J.F. 2017. Genetic diversity and Fabaceae species. Genetica 145(6): 481-489. structure in the Philippine Rafflesia lagascae [Germination of pathovars of P. ramosa from complex () inform its taxonomic rapeseed and Fabaceae hosts was similar in delimitation and conservation. Systematic response to 12 Fabaceae spp. Phylogenetically Botany 42:543-553. [This is the first of two related species showed more similar rates of papers published this year on the population induction of seed germination than species biology of Rafflesia (see also Barkman et al. drawn at random from a phylogenetic tree. Lotus 2017). Microsatellite data showed that even corniculata induced somewhat higher small populations harbour moderate levels of germination that other species and may be of genetic diversity with low levels of inbreeding. value as a catch crop.] Staminate and pistillate flowers of R. lagascae Pincovici, S., Cochavi, A., Karnieli, A., Ephrath, J on the same host were genetically identical and Rachmilevitch, S. 2018. Source-sink indicating the species is monoecious.] relations of sunflower plants as affected by a Pelser, P.B., Nickrent, D.L. and Barcelona, J.F. parasite modifies carbon allocations and leaf 2018. A conservation genetic study of traits. Plant Science 207: 100-107. [Parasitism of Rafflesia speciosa (Rafflesiaceae, Philippines): sunflower by Orobanche cumana results in patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation depletion of carbohydrates, leading to thinner within and between islands. Blumea 63:93- leaves, as under shade. Control of O. cumana by 101. [Microsatellites were used to study nine imazapic restored normal leaf mesophyll populations present on Panay and Negros structure and carbon asimilation rates.] islands. None of the populations showed Piwowarczyk, R., Guzikowski, S., Góralski, evidence of inbreeding. Negros populations G., Denysenko-Bennett, M., Kwolek, D. had lower genetic diversity and were and Joachimiak, A.J. 2018. First report of dodder genetically differentiated from Panay, thus (Cuscuta epithymum) parasitizing hemiparasitic suggesting sea straits impose reproductive species of Santalaceae (Thesium) and barriers. Conservation implications are Orobanchaceae (Euphrasia, Melampyrum, discussed.] Odontites, Orthantha, and Rhinanthus) in Peralta, A.Cala, Milinillo, J.M.G., Fernández- Poland. Plant Disease 102(2): 456-457. Aparicio, M., Ayuso, J., Alvarez, J.A., [Reporting the observation C. epithymum Rubiales, D and Macias, F.A. 2018. parasitising, and weakening T. linophyllon, O. Complexation of sesquiterpene lactones with serotina, Orthantha (=Odontites) lutea, M. cyclodextrins: synthesis and effects on their arvense, E. stricta and R. glaber at various sites activities on parasitic weeds. Organic and in Poland.] Biomolecular Chemistry 15(31): 6500-6510. Piwowarczyk, R. and Kasińska, J. 2017. Petal [Complexation with cyclodextrins of three epidermal micromorphology in holoparasitic sesquiterpene lactones including Orobanchaceae and its significance for dehydrocostuslactone increased significantly systematics and pollination ecology. Australian their water solubilities and biological Systematic Botany 360(1): 48-63. [A detailed activities. Therefore, cyclodextrin study of the microsculpture of guides and complexation of bioactive compounds with landing platforms in the flowers of 39 species of rather low water solubility seems to be useful holoparasitic and 6 species of hemiparasitic for applications in agrochemical design.] Orobanchaceae, identifying four major Pereira, R.G., Cala, A., Fernández-Aparicio, epidermal types - tabular rugose striate cells, M., Molinillo, J.M.G., Boaventura, M.A.D. areolate cells, papillose conical cells and lobular and Macías, F.A. 2017. Gibberellic and striate cells – and two main types of trichome, kaurenoic hybrid strigolactone mimics for seed glandular and non-glandular.] germination of parasitic weeds. Pest Piwowarczyk, R., Pedraja, O.S., Moral, G.M., Management Science 73(12): 2529-2537. [It Denysenko-Bennett, M., Goralski, G and was shown that strigolactone mimics prepared Kwolek, D. 2018. Orobanche javakhetica by the addition of a D-ring to GA3 and (Orobanchaceae): a new species from the kaurenoic acid may be active as stimulants of Caucasus (Armenia). Phytotaxa 336(2): 135-144. germination of one or more of Orobanche [O. javakhetica parasitizes Lomelosia caucasica cumana, O. crenata, O. minor, Phelipanche (Dipsacaceae). Morphologically distinct but ramosa, P. aegyptiaca and Striga hermonthica. perhaps related to sub-section Curvatae.] Some of the mimics are as active as GR24.] Posz, E. 2017. Euphrasia corcontica Perronne, R., Gibot-Leclerc, S., Dessaint, (Orobanchaceae) - is it really extinct? Annales F., Reibel, C. and le Corre, V. 2017. Is Botanici Fennici 54(1/3): 131-134. [Recording induction ability of seed germination of the rediscovery of E. corcontica in the Phelipanche ramosa phylogenetically Karkonosze National Park, Poland and HAUSTORIUM 73 32

elaborating its distinction from E. minima and cultivars. Rhizosphere 3( No.Part 1): 128-131. E. micrantha.] [Attractancy of soils from the rhizosphere of rice Pramod Kumar, Randhir Kumar and Ansari, S.A. varieties was unrelated to their resistance to 2017. Nitrate reductase and peroxidase activity Striga asiatica.] in growth and productivity of Santalum album Ratnaningrum, Y.W.N., Indrioko, S., Faridah, E. L. Tropical Plant Research 4(1): 90-94. and Syahbudin, A. 2017. Gene flow and Preeti Kumari, Tiwari, S.K. and Choudhary, A.K. selection evidence of sandalwood (Santalum 2017. Host range, anatomy, biochemistry and album) under various population structures in impacts of Cuscuta reflexa Roxb.: a case study Gunung Sewu (, Indonesia), and its effects from the Betla National Park, Jharkhand, on genetic differentiation. Biodiversitas: Journal India. Tropical Plant Research 4(1): 95-102. of Biological Diversity 18(4): 1493-1505. [A survey recorded C. reflexa on 33 host Rocha, D., Ashokan, P.K., Santhoshkumar, species in 23 families. Effects on the host A.V., Anoop, E.V. and Sureshkumar, P. 2017. included a consistent increase in protein Anatomy and functional status of haustoria in especially in Ziziphus maritiana. Effects on field grown sandalwood tree (Santalum album community structure are discussed.] L.). Current Science 113(1): 130-133. [Study Ramezani, S., Najafi, H., Nourmohammadi, G. with multiple hosts revealed that the extent of and Meighani, F. 2018. Control of dodder translocation from hosts to S. album varied from (Cuscuta campestris) weed through integrated 28.9% (coconut+Casuarina+rubber as host) to weed management system for higher sugar 78.5% (Casuarina+rubber as hosts). Reverse beet yield. Crop Research 53(1/2): 68-75. translocation of 32P from S. album to host was [Reporting significant increase in sugar beet also observed. The study concludes that it is not from combinations of seed-bed preparation, necessary to plant the host along with the sandal date of sowing and application of propyzamide as it is practiced presently. Noting that direct herbicide.] lumen-lumen xylem connections between S. Ramírez-Barahona, S., González, C., González- album and host were absent.] Rodríguez, A. and Ornelas, J. F. 2017. The Ronald, M., Charles, M., Stanford, M. and Eddie, influence of climatic niche preferences on the M. 2017. Predictions of the Striga scourge under population genetic structure of a mistletoe new climate in Southern Africa: a perspective. species complex. New Phytologist 214(4): Journal of Biological Sciences 17(5): 194-201. 1751-1761. [Concluding that environmental [Considering the effect of increased temperature predictors appeared to be more important than on various factors influencing Striga spp. and host preferences to explain genetic structure of concluding that infestations are likely to become Psittacanthus schiedeanus in Mexico, worse in already affected areas and potentially suggesting that the occurrence of the parasite move into new areas. Discussed primarily from a is determined more by its own climatic niche Southern Africa perspective, but apparently than by host specificity.] relevant to S. hermonthica as well as S. asiatica.] Randrianjafizanaka, M.T., Autfray, Rozina, Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad P., Andrianaivo, A.P., Ramonta, I.R. Zafar, Muhammad Qasim and Sheikh and Rodenburg, J. 2018. Combined effects of Zainulabidin. 2017. Ethnomedicinal uses of cover crops, mulch, zero-tillage and resistant plants for blood purification in district Swabi, varieties on Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze in rice- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Journal of Rural maize rotation systems. Agriculture, Development and Agriculture 2(1): 41-56. Ecosystems & Environment 256: 23-33. [Cuscuta reflexa one of the most frequently cited [Describing the results of a complex 4-year plants for blood purification.] trial in Madagascar based on conservation Rubiales, D. 2018. Can we breed for durable agriculture (CA) principles. The best rest resistance to broomrapes? Phytopathologia results involved rice varieties NERICA-9 and Mediterranea 57(1): 170−185. [Reviewing the NERICA-4 and Stlylosanthes guianensis cover current state of research in resistance breeding crop but even the combination of zero-tillage, against Orobanche and Phelipanche spp, and crop residue mulching, cover crops and incidentally emphasising the importance of resistant rice varieties does not entirely prevent avoiding human-driven seed dispersal.] S. asiatica parasitism and seed bank increase. Runo, S, Kuria, E.K. 2018. Habits of a highly Concluding other methods still needed. No successful cereal killer, Striga. PLoS Pathogens mention of rice yields.] 14(1): e1006731. Ranoarisoa, M.P., Blanchart, E., Vom Brocke, (http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id K., Ramanantsoanirina, A., Sester, =10.1371/journal.ppat.1006731 ) [A review M., Plassard, C., Cournac, L. and Trap, J. exploring seven particular characteristics of 2017. Attractancy of bacterivorous nematodes Striga as a parasite of great economic to root-adhering soils differs according to rice importance, suggesting reasons for its success HAUSTORIUM 73 33

under the headings Diversity, Fecundity, Romania. Species include O. alba, O. Mobility, Coordinated, Dormancy, caryophyllacea, O. coerulea and O. picridis.] Manipulative and Mysterious! Also outlining Schad, F., Thronicke, A., Merkle, A., Matthes, H. emerging control options.] and Steele, M.L. 2017. Immune-related and Safina, S.A. 2017. Effect of ridge width and adverse drug reactions to low versus high initial cropping system on productivity and land use doses of Viscum album L. in cancer patients. efficiency in faba bean-flax intercrops. 2017. Phytomedicine 36: 54-58. [Over 1300 patients Egyptian Journal of Agronomy 39(3): 357- were given sub-cutaneous injections of a V. 381. [Comparing two faba bean varieties at album product (unspecified in the abstract). A two row widths in conjunction with recommended low dose caused less than 1% interplanting with flax. Results from Giza-843 adverse reaction. A higher dose caused a were superior in yield and in terms of reaction in 20% of cases but these were always Orobanche crenata to those from Giza-2 and mild and often of a beneficial nature.] best with flax interplanted on 120 cm ridges.] Schad, F., Thronicke, A., Merkle, A., Steele, Salama, A., Popova, E., Jones, M.P., Shukla, M.L., Kröz, M., Herbstreit, C. and Matthes, H. M.R., Fisk, N.S. and Saxena, P.K. 2018. 2018. Implementation of an integrative Cryopreservation of the critically endangered oncological concept in the daily care of a golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta German certified breast cancer center. Greenm.): from nature to cryobank to nature. Complementary Medicine Research 25(2): 85- In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - 91. [Concluding that integrated therapies Plant 54(1): 69-78. [Describing techniques for involving Viscum album extracts have a the successful cryopreservation of shoot tips satisfactory record but that further studies are and their 100% recovery, in Canada.] required.] Salifou, M., Tignegre, J.B.L.S., Tongoona, *Schink, M. and Dehus, O. 2017. Effects of P., Offei, S., Ofori, K. and Danquah, E. 2017. mistletoe products on pharmacokinetic drug Differential responses of 15 cowpea genotypes turnover by inhibition and induction of to three Striga hot spots in Niger. International cytochrome P450 activities. BMC Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences Complementary and Alternative Medicine 11(4): 1413-1423. [Screening of a range of 17(52): No.521. cowpea varieties against S. gesnerioides (https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentra suggest that other races occur, in addition to l.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12906-017-2028-1) the predominant SG3. These include SG1 and [The results suggested that 3 different products - what may be SG4Z or at least a more virulent Helixor® A, Helixor® M and Helixor® P form of SG3.] prepared from Viscum album grown on Picea Samejima, H. and Sugimoto, Y. 2018. Recent spp. apple trees and Pinus spp. respectively did research progress in combatting root not cause inhibition of nine major cytochrome parasitic weeds. Biotechnology & P450 (CYP) isoenzymes in a test system using Biotechnological Equipment 32(2): 221-240. pooled human liver microsomes nor of five CYP [A wide range of potential control measures isoforms in human hepatocytes cultivated in are usefully reviewed.] vitro.] Sandeep Chaudhary, Gupta, A.K., Samuel, C.O. Schlemper, T.R., Leite, M.F.A.. Lucheta, and Upadhyaya, P.P. 2017. Use of plant A.R., Shimels, M., Bouwmeester, H.J., van products (extracts) as a natural fungicide Veen, J.A. and Kuramae, E.E. 2017. against Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn. Asian Rhizobacterial community structure differences Journal of Bio Science 12(2): 237-243. [The among sorghum cultivars in different growth leaves of Dendrophthoe falcata had moderate stages and soils. FEMS Microbiology Ecology activity against R. solani.] 93(8): fix096. [Comparing the bacterial Santos, M.O. and 10 others. 2017. The rhizosphere populations at 4 stages of 7 sorghum conservation of native priority medicinal varieties in 2 soil types and showing that, in an plants in a Caatinga area in Ceará, northeastern ‘abandoned’ soil type, a Striga-resistant cultivar Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de had significantly higher relative abundances of Ciencias 89(4): 2675-2685. [Ximenia Acidobacteria BC-1, Burkholderia, Cupriavidis, americana among 7 priority species for Acidovarax and Albidiferax than other conservation.] varieties.] Scărlătescu, V., Vasile, D. and Dincă, L. 2017. Schneider, A.C. and Moore, A.J. 2017. Parallel Plant species from "Al. Beldie" Herbarium- Pleistocene amphitropical disjunctions of a Orobanche genre - short description. parasitic plant and its host. American Journal of ProEnvironment 10(31): 191-198. [Noting 79 Botany 104(11): 1745-1755. [The genus specimens of Orobanche spp. dating from Aphyllon is parasitic on Grindelia (Asteraceae) 1824 in the Alexandru Beldie Herbarium in and both genera are disjunct between North and HAUSTORIUM 73 34

South America. Chronograms for both genera /15592324.2018.1445935?scroll=top&needAcce and their relatives were constructed (from ITS ss=true) [Concluding that the vascular and ETS rDNA sequences) that were differentiation process in haustoria of C. calibrated with a horizontal gene transfer japonica differs from that in conventional event. Aphyllon dispersed twice from North to vascular tissues, particularly in the ‘impeded’ South America recently (0.4 Ma) whereas enucleation of sieve elements.] Grindelia had a single dispersal.] *Shin, H.W. and Lee, N.S. 2018. Understanding Selvİ, E.K., Turumtay, H., Demİr, A. plastome evolution in hemiparasitic Santalales: and Turumtay, E.A. 2018. Phytochemical Complete chloroplast genomes of three species, profiling and evaluation of the Dendrotrophe varians, Helixanthera parasitica, hepatoprotective effect of Cuscuta campestris and Macrosolen cochinchinensis. PLOS ONE. by high-performance liquid chromatography July 5, 2018. with diode array detection. Analytical Letters (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13 51(10): 1464-1478. [The study suggested that 71/journal.pone.0200293) [Complete chloroplast isorhamnetin, kaempferol and quercetin were genomes were reported and compared to other probably most responsible for the -cancer published sequences. These genomes were effects of C. campestris extracts.] slightly or not reduced in size compared with Shahid, S., G. Kim, N.R. Johnson, E. Wafula, other hemiparasites. These (and all examined F. Wang, C. Coruh, V. Bernal-Galeano, Santalales) have experienced functional loss of C.W. dePamphilis, J.H. Westwood and ndh genes.] M.J. Axtell. 2018. MicroRNAs from the Smith, R.S., Shiel, R.S., Millward, D. Simkin, J.M. parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris target 2017. Effects of sheep stocking on the plant host messenger RNAs. Nature 553: 82–85. community and agricultural characteristics of (DOI: upland Anthoxanthum odoratum-Geranium 10.1038/nature25027) [Demonstrating that sylvaticum meadow in northern England. Grass microRNAs from C. campetsria and Forage Science 72(3): 502-515. [Results accumulate in the haustorial region and support suggestions that recent reductions in the specifically degrade specific host mRNAs. nature value of these grasslands, and specifically Mutating host target genes influence the proportion of Rhinanthus minor might be due parasite growth, suggesting that the to high stocking densities persisting until later in microRNAs function to the advantage of the spring, carried out during a 1-year period the parasite. See ‘Literature Highlight’ with warmer temperatures.] Sochor, M., above .] Egertova, Z., Hrones, M. and Dancak, M. 2018. Shettar, A.K., Sateesh, M.K., Kaliwal, Rediscovery of Thismia neptunis (Thismiaceae) B.B.and Vedamurthy, A.B. 2017. In vitro after 151 years. Phytotaxa 340(1): 71-78. antidiabetic activities and GC-MS [Reporting the rediscovery of the phytochemical analysis of Ximenia mycoheterotroph T. neptunis from western americana extracts. South African Journal of Sarawak, Malaysia. This species has remarkable Botany 111: 202-211. [Results contribute to perianth lobes that are terminated by long, the confirmation of the anti-diabetic filiform, vertically oriented appendages. Detailed properties of an aqueous extract from the illustrations and photographs are provided.] leaves of X. americana.] Solikin. 2017. Diversity of parasitic plants and their Shimada, H., Urabe, Y., Okamoto, Y., Li hosts in Kepala Jeri and Pemping agroforestry Zheng, Kawase, A., Morikawa, T., Tu Batam Indonesia. Journal of Biological PengFei, Muraoka, O. and Iwaki, M. 2017. Researches / Berkala Penelitian Hayati 23(1): Major constituents of Cistanche tubulosa, 45-52. [A survey showed Cassytha filiformis to echinacoside and acteoside, inhibit sodium- be the commonest parasitic plant, followed by dependent glucose cotransporter 1-mediated Dendrophthoe pauciflora each occurring on a glucose uptake by intestinal epithelial cells. relatively wide range of non-crop host species, Journal of Functional Foods 39: 91-95. [This while Viscum stenocarpum was rare and only study suggested that the inhibitory effects of occurred as a hyper-parasite on D. pauciflora.] echinacoside and acteoside on sodium- Souza, M.C., Scalon, M.C., Poschenrieder, dependent glucose cotransporter-mediated C., Tolrà, R., Venâncio, T., Teixeira, S.P. and glucose uptake contribute to suppression of da Costa, F.B. 2018. Mechanisms of storage and increased postprandial blood glucose level.] detoxification of Al in two tropical mistletoes. *Shimizu, K. and Aoki, K. 2018. Differentiation Environmental and Experimental Botany 150: of vascular elements in haustoria of Cuscuta 37-45. [Concluding that Passovia ovatus and japonica. Plant Signaling and Behavior 13(3): Struthanthus polyanthus growing on aluminium- e1445935. accumulating trees tolerate high Al tissue levels (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080 HAUSTORIUM 73 35

by allocating Al in phloem fibres and by its inhibitors and Viscum album L. therapy in chelation with citrate.] patients with advanced or metastatic cancer. Striegler, U. 2017. (The Upper Miocene flora of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine the leaf-bearing Wischgrund clay and other 17(53): No.534. outcrops of the same age on the Klettwitz (https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentra Plateau (Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, l.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12906-017-2045-0) Germany)) (in German).Peckiana 12: 151 pp. [This preliminary study concluded that [Species of Loranthaceae and Santalaceae concomitant use of V. album therapy with the among fossil leaves identified.] immune checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab (75%), Subasinghe, S.M.C.U.P., Samarasekara, ipilimumab (19%) or pembrolizumab (6%) did S.C., Millaniyage, K.P. and Hettiarachchi, D.S. not result in increased ‘adverse events, but a 2017. Heartwood assessment of natural larger study is required.] Santalum album populations for agroforestry Tian Xiao, Guo Sen, He Kan, Roller, M., Yang development in Sri Lanka. Agroforestry MeiQi, Liu QingChao, Zhang Li, Ho ChiTang Systems 91(6): 1157-1164. [Studying the and Bai NaiSheng. 2018. Qualitative and variation in oil content of S. album across Sri quantitative analysis of chemical constituents of Lanka and identifying sources of high Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth. Natural Product content.] Research 32(3): 354-357. [14 compounds Sultan, A., Tate, J.A., de Lange, P.J., Glenny, D., identified in extracts of P. olacoides (Olacaceae) Ladley, J.J., Heenan, P. and Robertson, A.W. among which alkaloids were thought to be the 2018. Host range, host specificity, regional most important.] host preferences and genetic variability of Tong ZeYu and Huang ShuangQuan. 2018. Safe Korthalsella Tiegh. (Viscaceae) mistletoes in sites of pollen placement: a conflict of interest New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany between plants and bees? Oecologia 186(1): 56(2):127-162. [Host breadth was documented 163-171. [Looking at the various sites on a bee’s for three endemic species of Korthalsella: K. body from which the bee can or cannot retrieve clavata, K. lindsayi, and K. salicornioides. The and utilise the pollen collected from 4 first two are generalists (19 genera, 14 Pedicularis species (in China) and showing that families) whereas Leptospermum scoparium is the sites where most pollen was collected were the primary host for the latter species. Shared favourable for both deposit on stigmas AND cpDNA and ITS sequence types suggest retrievable for the bee.] hybridization between the first two species.] Tsegay Gebreselassie, Atsbha Gebreslasie Surabhi Gumber, Ashish Tewari and Beena and Hintsa Meresa. 2018. Enhancing sorghum Tewari. 2017. Loranthus (Taxillus vestitus) productivity through demonstration of integrated infestation in mixed oak forest sites in and striga management technologies and its partial around Nainital catchment of Central budget analysis in Tanqua-Abergelle district, Himalayan region. Indian Forester 143(7): Central Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia. African 671-675. [Surveying the occurrence of T. Journal of Plant Science 12(1): 17-23. [The vestitus in Quercus leucotrichophora, Q. application of integrated Striga management floribunda, Q. lanata and Populus ciliata. Q. technologies, including sorghum variety floribunda had the highest infestations. (Gobiye), tied-ridging/moisture conservation, Conifers were unaffected.] row planting and fertilizer application on 10 Tekİn, M., Sarİ, D., Catal, M., Ikten, C., Smykal, farms resulted in a significant increase in grain P., Penmetsa, R.V., von Wettberg, E.J. yield, a moderate reduction in straw yield and a and Toker, C. 2018. Eco-geographic 36% increase in economic return.] distribution of Cicer isauricum P.H. Davis and Tsuchiya, Y., Yoshimura, M. and Hagihara, S. 2018. threats to the species. Genetic Resources and The dynamics of strigolactone perception in Crop Evolution 65(1): 67-77. [Noting that the Striga hermonthica: a working hypothesis. threats to C. isauricum include unspecified Journal of Experimental Botany 69(9): 2281- Orobanche species.] 2290. [Recent advances in strigolactone research Teppner, H. 2017. The first records of vibratory in parasitic plants are reviewed. A conceptual pollen-collection by bees. Phyton (Horn) framework for the unique in planta dynamics of 57(1/2): 129-135. [Tracing the first reliable strigolactone perception is uncovered through literature on vibratory pollen collection (on the use of fluorescent probes for strigolactone Senna alata) to a paper by Lindman in 1902. receptors.] Its occurrence on Melampyrum pratense was Turnau, K., Jędrzejczyk, R., Domka, A., Anielska, reported by Meidell in 1944.] T. And Piwowarczyk R. 2018. Expansion of a *Thronicke, A., Steele, M.L., Grah, C., Matthes, holoparasitic plant, Orobanche lutea B. and Schad, F. 2017. Clinical safety of (Orobanchaceae), in post-industrial areas - a combined therapy of immune checkpoint possible Zn effect. Science of the Total HAUSTORIUM 73 36

Environment 639: 714-724. [Reporting the *Voukeng, I.K., Beng, V.P. and Kuete, V. 2017. intriguing observation that O. lutea is Multidrug resistant bacteria are sensitive to particularly favoured when it occurs on Euphorbia prostrata and six others Cameroonian Medicago falcata on industrial waste land medicinal plants extracts. BMC Research Notes contaminated with toxic metals (Zn, Cu and 10: No.321. Pb). The parasite tends to lower the levels of (https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pd metals in the host and increases its f/10.1186/s13104-017-2665-y) [Including photosynthetic capacity , although reducing reference to the wide range of activity of yield.] ‘Viscum album’ but of no value in the absence of Twyford, A.D. 2017. New insights into the correct identification.] population biology of endoparasitic *Wang DongFang, Wang HaiZhen and Gu Li. 2017. Rafflesiaceae. American Journal of Botany The antidepressant and cognitive improvement 104:1433-1436. [A commentary discussing activities of the traditional Chinese herb Pelser et al. (2017) and and Barkman et al. Cistanche. Evidence-based Complementary and (2017) that examined Rafflesia population Alternative Medicine 2017: ID 3925903. genetics in the Philippines and Malaysia, (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2017/3 respectively.] 925903/) [The study confirmed the potential for Valcheva, E., Popov, V., Zorovski, a decoctioon of C. deserticola and C. tubulosa in P., Golubinova, I., Marinov-Serafimov, treatment of depression.] P., Velcheva, I. and Petrova, S. 2018. Wang GuoYan, Baskin, C.C., Baskin, J.M., Yang Allelopathic effect of dodder on different XueJun, Liu GuoFang, Zhang XinShi, Ye varieties of lucerne and bird's foot-trefoil. XueHua and Huang ZhenYing. 2017. Timing of Contemporary Agriculture 2018(1): 27-33. seed germination in two alpine herbs on the [Dried material of Cuscuta epythimum proved southeastern Tibetan plateau: the role of seed more inhibitory than fresh material to the dormancy and annual dormancy cycling in soil. germinations and growth of most varieties of Plant and Soil 421(1/2): 465-476. [Seeds of lucerne and Lotus corniculatus but Medicago Pedicularis fletcheri showed dormancy when sativa var. multifoliolate and L. corniculatus fresh but responded to cold stratification or var. Local population 1 and Local population 2 GA3.] showed ‘significant tolerance’. Relevance not Wang XiangPing and Huang ShuangQuan. 2017. clear?] Interspecific and intraspecific variation in Vladović, D. and Mitić, B. 2017. Analysis of the corolla tube length in Pedicularis species family Orobanchaceae from Carl Studniczka's achieved by both cell anisotropy and division. herbarium. Oltenia Journal for Studies in Journal of Systematics and Evolution 55(3): 208- Natural Sciences 33(1): 59-64. [Cataloguing 214. [Results showed that intraspecific variation 127 herbarium specimens held in the Natural in corolla tube length in Pedicularis species was History Museum in Split, Croatia, collected largely attributable to changes in cell anisotropy, mainly in Europe, but some in N. America. but the evolutionary innovation underlying the The paper can be accessed at: rapid radiation of Pedicularis corolla tubes was http://biozoojournals.ro/oscsn/cont/33_1/oscsn attributable to both cell division and cell _v33n1_art-08_Vladovic.pdf ] expansion.] *Vogel, A., Schwacke, R., Denton, A.K., Usadel, *Wang XiaoMing, Wang JinFang, Guan HuanYu, B., Hollman, J., Fischer, K., Bolger, A., Xu Rong, Luo XiaoMei, Su MeiFeng, Chang Schmidt, M. H-W., Bolger, M.E., Gundlach, XiaoYan, Tan WenTing, Chen Jun and Shi Yue. H., Mayer, K.F.X. Weiss-Schneiweiss, 2017. Comparison of the chemical profiles and Temsch, E.M. and Krause, K. 2018. antioxidant activities of different parts of Footprints of parasitism in the genome of cultivated Cistanche deserticola using ultra the parasitic flowering plant Cuscuta performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole campestris. Nature Communications 9: time-of-flight mass spectrometry and a 1,1- 2515. diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl-based assay. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467- Molecules 22(11): 2011. 018-04344-z) [Reporting the complete (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- genome for C. campestris, noting the 3049/22/11/2011/htm [Describing analytical absence of many photosynthesis genes and techniques which established that the stems and those involved in absorbing nutrients from ‘discarded aerial parts’ of C. deserticola were soil. Also concluding that there has been particularly rich in anti-oxidants.] substantial horizontal transfer of genes Wang YaJiao, Ji LiJing, Li QiuSheng, Chen from hosts. See also ‘Literature Highlight’ LianFang, Xue GenShehg, Wang LianSheng and above.] Kong LingXiao. 2017. (Control efficacy of microbial herbicide Br-2 against Orobanche HAUSTORIUM 73 37

aegyptiaca.) (in Chinese) China Vegetables data indicate P. japonicum is not part of the 2017(4): 65-68. [Noting the importance of O. Pterygiella/Phtheirospermum clade. The authors aegyptiaca in tomato in northern China and the discuss maintaining the name P. japonicum and apparent success of the un-identified microbial transferring the remaining taxa to another agent ‘Br-2’ for its control when applied at 10 genus.] g per plant at time of transplanting.] *Werthmann, P.G., Saltzwedel, G. and Kienle G.S. Wang, Yanting and Bouwmeester, H.J. 2018. 2017. Minor regression and long-time survival Structural diversity in the strigolactones. (56 months) in a patient with malignant pleural Journal of Experimental Botany 69(9): mesothelioma under Viscum album and 2219-2230. [This is a comprehensive review Helleborus niger extracts-a case report. Journal on structural diversity in the strigolactones of Thoracic Research 9(12) e1064-e1070. in relation to their biosynthesis, biological (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM relevance, and perception by receptors in C5757010/) [A rare case of an MPM patient not plants and in other organisms. The receiving any standard anticancer treatment but distribution of strigolactones in different showing an extraordinary long survival and plant species listed in Table 1 is reliable and good performance status. It is presumed that the has eliminated ambiguous data. Please refer V. album and H. niger may have had an impact, to this review for the distribution of deserving further investigation.] strigolactones in the plant kingdom. This Wiatrowska, B. 2017. (Rafflesia arnoldii - a plant list shall be updated at least as often as with the largest flowers in the world.) (in Polish) annually.] Nauka Przyroda Technologie 11(4): 365-373. [A Wang Ye, Chen Lei, Bai Yun, Zhang Jun'e, Liu general review that is, for the most part, accurate HongXia and Tian ChengMing. 2017. but could have benefitted from accessing the (Genetic diversity of Arceuthobium now extensive literature on Philippine Rafflesia.] sichuanense revealed by ISSR markers.) (in Widener, L. and Fant, J.B. 2018. Genetic Chinese) Acta Botanica Boreali-Occidentalia differentiation and diversity of two sympatric Sinica 37(11): 2153-2162. [Study of molecular subspecies of Castilleja affinis; a comparison markers from 100 specimens of A. sicuanense between the endangered serpentine endemic from 5 Picea species showed that they fell into (spp. neglecta) and its widespread congener (ssp. 2 main groups according to host species, affinis). Conservation Genetics 19(2): 365-381. indicating that geographical isolation and host [Confirming that there is little hybridisation selection played an important part in the btween the endangered C. affinis ssp. neglecta genetic diversity of A. sichuanense.] and the commoner ssp. affinis but more *Wang XueNi and 11 others. 2017. Compounds strenuous conservation efforts are needed.] from Cynomorium songaricum with estrogenic Wójciak-Kosior, M., Sowa, I., Pucek, and androgenic activities suppress the K., Szymczak, G., Kocjan, R. and Luchowski, P. oestrogen/androgen-induced BPH process. 2017. Evaluation of seasonal changes of Evidence-based Complementary and triterpenic acid contents in Viscum album from Alternative Medicine 2017: ID 6438013. different host trees. Pharmaceutical Biology (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2017 55(1): 1-4. [Content of oleanoic acid was lowest /6438013/) in spring and highest in summer but the Wehn, S. and Rønningen, K. 2017. (The differences were not great.] "ENGKALL" (= Rhinanthus) project: Wolfe, A.D. 2018. Hyobanche hanekomii optimalised management of valuable hay (Orobanchaceae), a new species from the meadows.) (in Norwegian) Blyttia 75(4): 209- Western Cape of South Africa. Phytotaxa 216. [Studying the value of ‘Traditional 340(1): 93-97. [Once thought to be a hybrid Ecological Knowledge’ in the management of between H. atropurpurea and H. sanguinea, this hay meadows and concluding that varying taxon was shown to be distinct based on mowing time is preferable to any single fixed morphometrics and AFLP markers.] time, presumably for preserving populations of Wołkowycki, D. 2017. (Threatened, legally Rhianthus spp.] protected and rare vascular plants in upper and *Wen-Bin Yu, Randle, C.P., Lu Lu, Hong Wang, central parts of the Narew River Valley (NE Jun-Bo Yang, de Pamphilis, C.W., Corlett, R.T Poland).) (in Polish) Fragmenta Floristica et and DeZhu Li. 2018. The hemiparasitic plant Geobotanica Polonica 24(1): 99-118. [Including Phtheirospermum (Orobanchaceae) is Thesium ebracteatum, ‘under threat of polyphyletic and contains cryptic species in the extinction’.] Hengduan Mountains of Southwest China. Xiao Yan, Tian DaiKe, Zhang Cheng, Xiang Frontiers in Plant Science 09 February 2018. ZuHeng, Zhang DaiGui and Fu NaiFeng. 2017. (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/f (Provincial new records of eight species of pls.2018.00142/full ) [Both nuclear and plastid spermatophytes in northwestern Hu'nan HAUSTORIUM 73 38

Province.) (in Chinese) Journal of Plant combination of C. deserticola and C. tubulosa Resources and Environment 26(4): 110-112. in the treatment of constipation.] [Taxillus caloreas among new records.] Yang, L., Yang, G-S., Ma, H-Y., Wang, Y-H. and Xiao XingHui, Zhang XiangQian, Li GuiFang Shen, S-K. 2018. Phylogenetic placement of and Li YuXia. 2017. (Aqueous two-phase Yunnanopilia (Opiliaceae) inferred from extraction of total flavonoids from Cistanche molecular and morphological data. Journal of deserticola Y. C. Ma and the antioxidant Systematics and Evolution 56:48-55. activity of the extracts.) (in Chinese) Food [Morphological and molecular phylogenetic Research and Development 38(16): 5-9. methods were employed to address the status of [Describing techniques for optimising the Y. longistaminea. The authors chose to recognize extraction of the active flavonoids from C. this taxon as a new genus, however, both types deserticola.] of data also support the original concept by *Xie WenYan, Adolf, J. and Melzig, M.F. 207. Pierre and Li (1989) that this is another species Identification of Viscum album L. miRNAs of Melientha.] and prediction of their medicinal values.PLoS Yergİn-Ozkan, R. and Tepe, I. 2018. Emergence ONE .12(11): e0187776. characteristics and germination physiology of (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10. smoothseed alfalfa dodder (Cuscuta 1371/journal.pone.0187776) [MicroRNAs approximata Bab.). Fresenius Environmental (miRNAs) in Viscum album were sequenced. Bulletin 27(1): 104-109. [In a study in Turkey, Human genes and pathways have been seeds of C. approximata germinated between 10 predicted as putative targets of novel miRNAs, and 300C following stratification at 20C. 50% and target genes involved in bioactive germinated after 133 days. Maximum components synthesis in V. album were germination of 98% was obtained with 150 ppm predicted.] gibberellic acid.] *Xie WenYan and Melzig, M.F. 2018. The Yousefabadi, V., Alebrahim, M.T., Tuobe, A., Zand, stability of medicinal plant microRNAs in the E. and Abdollahian-Noghabi, M. 2017. Effect of herb preparation process. Molecules 23(4): seedling transplantation and post-emergence 919. (http://www.mdpi.com/1420- herbicides application on field dodder (Cuscuta 3049/23/4/919/htm) [The study confirmed the campestris) control in sugar beet. Romanian stability of miRNAs derived during the Agricultural Research 34: 377-384. [Confirming prparation of various Viscum album that transplanting rather than direct sowing preparations, suggesting the possibility of greatly reduced infection by C. campestris and functionally intact medicinal plant miRNAs increased sugar beet yield by 150%.] being introduced to mammals.] Yule, K.M. and Bronstein, J.L. 2018. Reproductive Xue HaiYan, Jiao ChanYuan and Yao Jun. 2018. ecology of a parasitic plant differs by host (Research progress on pharmacology of species: vector interactions and the maintenance Cynomorii herba.) (in Chinese) Drugs and of host races. Oecologia 186(2): 471-482. Clinic 33(3): 709-712. [Reviewing progress in [Differences in several factors (reproductive the pharmacology of Cistanche songaricum, phenology, pollinator reward, pollinator valued for its uses for invigorating the kidney, community, etc.) between Phoradendron hypoxia tolerance, anti-fatigue, protecting californicum parasitizing mesquite (Prosopis) liver, anti-osteoporosis, and protecting nervous and acacia (Senegalia) were observed, but host system] was not associated with greater reproductive Yagi, S.M. and Yagi, A.I. 2018. Traditional success in the mistletoe.] medicinal plants used for the treatment of Yusuf, A. and Deepa, P. 2017. Influence of N diabetes in the Sudan: a review. African nutrients on GS activity and putative ammonium Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 12(3): transporter1;2 (saAMT1;2) expression in sandal 27-40. [33 plants have been documented for plants (Santalum album L.). Trees: Structure and treatment of diabetes in Sudan. All reduced Function 31(6): 1773-1784. blood sugar levels except Striga hermonthica!] *Zhang AiLian, Yang XiuMei, Li QuanXiao, Yang *Yan Shuai, Yue YinZi, Wang XiaoPeng, Dong Yu, Zhao Gan, Wang Bin and Wu DaoCheng. HongLi, Zhen ShuGuang, Wu BenSheng 2018. Immunostimulatory activity of water- and Qian HaiHua. 2017. Aqueous extracts of extractable polysaccharides from Cistanche Herba Cistanche promoted intestinal motility deserticola as a plant adjuvant in vitro and in in loperamide-induced constipation rats by vivo. PLoS ONE 13(1): e0191356. ameliorating the interstitial cells of Cajal. (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13 Evidence-based Complementary and 71/journal.pone.0191356) [ The study suggests Alternative Medicine 2017: ID 6236904. that polysaccharides of C. deserticola are a safe (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2017 and effective vaccine adjuvant for eliciting both /6236904/) [Confirming the potential of a humoral immunity and cellular immunity by HAUSTORIUM 73 39

activating dendritic cells via TLR4 signaling HAUSTORIUM 73 pathway.] has been edited by Chris Parker, 5 Royal York Zhang GuiFang, Yin LiShi, Zhang Chao and Luo Crescent, Bristol BS8 4JZ, UK (Email HaiYan. 2017. Effect of Cistanche deserticola [email protected]), Lytton Ma extract on memory of aged mice. Tropical Musselman, Parasitic Plant Laboratory, Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 16(8): Department of Biological Sciences, Old 1903-1907. [The results show that C. Dominion University, Norfolk Virginia 23529- deserticola improves memory function in 0266, USA (fax 757 683 5283; Email mice, probably by increasing the activity of [email protected]) and Hinanit Koltai, Dept of CAT and decreasing AChE activity.] Ornamental Horticulture, Institute of Plant Zhang, J., Jia, R., Zhang, Y., Li, M., Zhou, H. Sciences, ARO Volcani Center, Bet-Dagan and Zhao, J. 2018. First report of stem rot of 50250, Israel ([email protected]) with valued sunflower broomrape (Orobanche cumana) assistance from Koichi Yoneyama, Utsunomiya caused by Sclerotinia minor jagger in Inner University, Japan, and from Dan Nickrent, Mongolia, China. Plant Disease 102(3): 683. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA. Zlonis, K.J. and Gross, B.L. 2018. Genetic It is produced and distributed by Chris Parker structure, diversity, and hybridization in and published by Old Dominion University populations of the rare arctic relict Euphrasia (ISSN 1944-6969). hudsoniana (Orobanchaceae) and its invasive congener Euphrasia stricta. Conservation Send material for publication to any of the Genetics 19(1): 43-55. [E. hudsoniana in editors. Minnesota is at the southern edge of its range and is at risk from climate change and from NB. Haustorium is no longer distributed in hard- hybridisation with the invasive E. stricta. copy form. It is available by email free of charge Finding very little evidence of hybridisation – contact Chris Parker - and may also be down- but recommending further monitoring.] loaded from the IPPS web-site (see above). Zoundji, G.C., Vodouhe, S.D., Okry, F., Bentley, J.W. and Tossou, R.C. 2018. Beyond striga management: learning videos enhanced farmers' knowledge on climate-smart agriculture in Mali. Sustainable Agriculture Research 7(1): 80-91. [Ten videos describing techniques for reducing Striga hermonthica in maize, sorghum and millet contributed to significantly increased yields in villages where they were shown. Videos on other topics may also have contributed. The paper is available at https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/FullTextP DF/2018/20183083144.pdf Zwanenburg, B. and Blanco-Ania, D. 2018. Strigolactones: new plant hormones in the spotlight. Journal of Experimental Botany 69(9): 2205–2218. [A historical review on stereochemical structures of natural strigolactones, structure-activity relationships, and designs and syntheses of strigolactone mimics. It may be better to use the terms of orobanchyl acetate (alectrol) for 4-O-acetyl orobanchol (alectrol) in Fig. 2 and 4- deoxyorobanchol for ent-2'-epi-(5)- deoxystrigol in Fig. 17. Carlactonic acid should be carlactonoic acid.]