HAUSTORIUM 76 1 HAUSTORIUM Parasitic Plants Newsletter ISSN 1944-6969 Official Organ of the International Parasitic Plant Society (
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HAUSTORIUM 76 1 HAUSTORIUM Parasitic Plants Newsletter ISSN 1944-6969 Official Organ of the International Parasitic Plant Society (http://www.parasiticplants.org/) July 2019 Number 76 CONTENTS MESSAGE FROM THE IPPS PRESIDENT (Julie Scholes)………………………………………………..………2 MEETING REPORTS 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, 30 June – 5 July 2019, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.………….……..2 MISTLETOE (VISCUM ALBUM) AND ITS HOSTS IN BRITAIN (Brian Spooner)……………………………10 PHELIPANCHE AEGYPTIACA IN WESTERN IRAN (Alireza Taab)……………………………………………12 NEW AND CURRENT PROJECTS Delivering high-yielding, disease-resistant finger millet to farmers…………………………………………….…..13 N2AFRICA – new Striga project – update……………………………………………………………………….…...14 Striga asiatica Madagascar fieldwork summary 2019……………………………………………………………......14 Pea (Pisum sativum) breeding for disease and pest resistance ………………………………………………….......15 REQUEST FOR SEEDS OF OROBANCHE CRENATA (Gianniantonio Domina)…………………………...…..15 PRESS REPORTS Metabolite stimulates a crop while suppressing a weed………………………………………………………….…..16 Dodder plant poses threat to trees and crops (in Kenya)………………………………………………………...….17 PhD OPPORTUNITY AT NRI (Jonne Rodenburg)…………………………………………………………………18 THESIS Sarah Huet. An overview of Phelipanche ramosa seeds: sensitivity to germination stimulants and microbiome profile. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18 BOOK REVIEW Strigolactones – Biology and Applications. Ed. by Hinanit Koltai and Cristina Prandi. (Koichi Yoneyama) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....19 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS: IUFRO World Congress, 29 Sept-5 Oct, Curatiba, Brazil…………………………………………………………..20 World Oilseed Congress, 6-7 Nov, 2019, Lviv, Ukraine …………………………………………………………….20 International Biological, Agricultural and Life Science Congress (BIALIC), 7-8 Nov, 2019, Lviv, Ukraine….. 20 BELATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (OR SHOULD BE HIGHER??)…………………………………………..20 GENERAL WEBSITES……….…………………………………………………….……….……………………….20 LITERATURE………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..…21 HAUSTORIUM 76 2 Susann is currently a Group Leader in Plant MESSAGE FROM THE IPPS PRESIDENT Evolutionary Genomics at the University of Munster and will bring a great deal of expertise Dear IPPS members, to the Editor position. I have received two I hope you have had a good summer. nominations for the new Member at Large position and I will shortly,via e-mail, organise The WCPP-15 meeting took place in the election for this position. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from the 30th June to 5th July. Over 110 participants attended the With very best wishes, meeting from different parts the world. The meeting was excellent both scientifically and Julie socially; both the location and the weather were beautiful! I would like to thank Harro Julie Scholes, IPPS President Bouwmeester and his team for their hospitality, ([email protected]) their hard work and excellent organisation, before and during the meeting, which made it a great success. THE FUTURE OF HAUSTORIUM I would also like to thank the scientific committee and the session organisers for their N.B. LITERATURE -Therapeutic uses. Chris input into the scientific programme and the Parker intends to continue assembling the organisation of the individual sessions. We had Literature section with the help of colleagues. excellent keynote, oral and poster presentations However he would like to reduce the work load as described by Lytton Musselman and Nick by including only exceptionally interesting items Flanders in their meeting report below. I would on therapeutic uses.These amount to up to one particularly like to congratulate the students and third of all the items covered, yet he is not aware young scientists on the exciting work they are of any active interest in these. If anyone is doing. really interested in these and/or wishes to help by covering them we could discuss how they I would like to update everyone on the proposed access the relevant sources. changes to the IPPS website and structure of the IPPS Executive Committee. As Harro and I explained at the end of the Congress, we would MEETING REPORT like to update and modernize the IPPS website so that it better serves the members of the Society. 15th World Congress on Parasitic Plants. The new website will be more interactive and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 30th June – 5th incorporate the websites for the biennial WCPP July. congresses within its structure. The website will also have a page for the societiy’s newsletter, I believe I was the only one at this congress who Haustorium. Harro is currently exploring the attended the first symposium on parasitic plants possibility of employing the WCPP_15 website held in Malta in 1973 and organized by Chris designer, to design the new structure of the IPPS Parker and the European Weed Research website. Council. With the perspective of the resident fossil, I was pleased to see the large number of As part of these changes the role of the Editor young scientists eloquently displaying their and Members at Large will change. The Editor research prowess. This bodes well for the future will have overall responsibility for the content of our discipline. No doubt the availability of and structure of the website, helped by the numerous financial awards encouraged the Members at Large. In addition to the current participation of early career scientists. Member at Large (Prof Airong Li) a second Member at Large will be elected to help with the The progress made since Malta in understanding website and will also help Chris Parker put how parasitic plants function is astounding. together Haustorium. At the conference we Papers presented at the meeting in Amsterdam asked for nominations for the position of Editor had enormous explanatory power that drew and the new Member at Large. I am delighted heavily upon the extensive genetic and genomic to announce that Professor Susann Wicke has data created during the past decade. kindly agreed to take on the position of Editor. HAUSTORIUM 76 3 Compared to earlier meetings there was more emphasis on Cuscuta and fewer presentations in Oral presentations: posters and papers on mistletoes, Balanophoraceae, Rafflesiaceae, Santalalean NB Full authorship – and abstracts – will be families, and nothing on Cassytha. But the data found at: https://www.wcpp2019.org/wp- presented and the methods used have potential to content/uploads/2019/07/WCPP2019_Confere answer questions in those groups. nce_book_final.pdf This congress grew out of a series of earlier Host Plant Resistance symposia where a major emphasis was on parasitic weeds of agricultural importance, Jianqiang Wu – ‘The parasite Cuscuta australis with especially Striga in Africa and Orobanche in the a streamlined genome mediates inter-plant Middle East. Control of these devastating weeds systemic signals.’ was an overarching concern at those meetings. Herbivory defense signals are transferred So the question can be asked, How has a more between plants by C. australis, even plants in complete understanding of parasitic behavior, different families; signals between hosts = especially the elegant communication between ecological benefit of parasite. Also signals for N host and parasite, affected the small holder uptake and N itself moved through dodder from farmer. In my view not much, an opinion shared N rich host to N poor host. This Cuscuta species by several colleagues at the meeting. The coordinates flowering with host species witchweed problem in Africa, for example, flowering seems little mitigated since I lived in Sudan in Michael Axtell - ‘Cuscuta microRNAs target host the early 1980’s. Perhaps we need to devote mRNAs involved in defence and vascular time at the next congress to address the function.’ relationship of research to control. Regulatory RNAs are transported from C. campestris to host; microRNAs from Cuscuta The organization of the congress was superb. target host mRNAs, down-regulating host The selection and vetting of speakers ensured mRNAs, helping the parasite. mRNA targets in quality presentations with session chairs selected the host help with resistance to Cuscuta, for for their expertise evident in the way questions instance clotting phloem at wound. Genome of and discussions were handled. The quality of the Cuscuta with host genes that include introns papers was attested by the fact that almost all confirms horizontal gene transfer; microRNAs congress registrants were present at every transported by Cuscuta could come from host session. genes. Variation in microRNAs of Cuscuta match variation among mRNAs of different host Posters were an important part of the congress. species to ensure match; portions of host mRNAs Ample, dedicated time was devoted to viewing that are conserved across host species thus the posters with the authors present. The poster conserved in Cuscuta. sessions immediately followed the paper Koh Aoki – ‘Interspecific long-distance movement presentations ensuring good participation. Like of Cuscuta small RNAs control biological similar meetings, one of the most important processes in host-parasitic plant complex.’ aspects was plenty of time for personal Small RNA’s from Cuscuta move long distance interaction. in the host (to apex); small RNAs from host move long distances in Cuscuta (C. japonica Grateful thanks are due the organizing and and C. campestris.) scientific committees and especially to our Dutch Markus Albert – ‘A peptide motif of a parasitic plant hosts. Their efforts in the selection of the venue, cell wall protein is recognized by the receptor