bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.431739; this version posted February 18, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Biological and Transcriptomic Characterization of Pre-haustorial Resistance to Sunflower 2 Broomrape (Orobanche cumana W.) 3 Dana Sisou1,2,3, Yaakov Tadmor2, Dina Plakhine1, Sariel Hübner4, Hanan Eizenberg1 4 1Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Newe Ya’ar Research Center, Agricultural Research 5 Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel 6 2Department of Vegetable and Field Crops, Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research 7 Organization Ramat Yishay, Israel 8 3The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, 9 Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel 10 4 MIGAL, Galilee Research Institute, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, Israel. 11 5Department of Vegetable and Field Crops, Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Rishon 12 LeZion, Israel 13 14 EMAIL:
[email protected] 15 Orchid-ID: 0000-0002-3412-8817 16 17 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.431739; this version posted February 18, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 18 Abstract 19 Infestations with sunflower broomrape (Orobanche cumana Wallr.), an obligatory root parasite, constitute 20 a major limitation to sunflower production in many regions around the world. Breeding for resistance is the 21 most effective approach to reduce sunflower broomrape infestation, yet resistance mechanisms are often 22 overcome by new races of the pathogen.