• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Thursday, August 28, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Dodder uses the flowering signal of its host plant to flower

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 31, 2020
in Science News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

The plant parasite eavesdrops on its host and uses the host’s mobile floral stimulus for timing its own flowering

IMAGE

Credit: Jingxiong Zhang, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

The plant genus Cuscuta consists of more than 200 species that can be found almost all over the world. The parasites, known as dodder, but also called wizard’s net, devil’s hair or strangleweed, feed on other plants by attaching themselves to their hosts via a special organ, the haustorium, and withdrawing nutrients from them. They have neither roots nor leaves. Without leaves, they are hardly able to photosynthesize. Without roots they cannot absorb nutrients and water from the soil. On the other hand, they are integrated into the internal communication network of their host plants and can even pass on warning signals from plant to plant (see our press release Dodder: a parasite involved in the plant alarm system, July 24, 2017).

A team of scientists led by Jianqiang Wu, who has been the leader of a Max Planck Partner Group at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, now asked how the parasites manage to synchronize flowering with their hosts. They had observed that plants of the Australian dodder (Cuscuta australis) adjusted the time of their flowering to that of their respective host plant species.

Flower promoting signal FT from the host also determines the flowering time of the parasite

“The flowering time is controlled by leaves, as leaves can sense environmental cues and synthesize the flowering signal, a protein named FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), which travels through the plant vascular system. We therefore wondered how a leafless parasite such as Cuscuta australis controls the timing of its flowering,” says lead investigator Jianqiang Wu. In 2018, his team had sequenced the genome of C. australis and found that many genes important for regulation of flowering time were lost in C. australis genome. Therefore, C. australis seems to be unable to activate its own flowering mechanism.

Based on the fact that FT proteins are mobile signals, the researchers hypothesized that dodder eavesdrops on the flowering signals produced by the leaves of its host and uses them for producing its own flowers. To prove this eavesdropping scenario, they used genetically modified host plants in which the expression of FT genes had been altered, and this indeed affected the flowering time of the parasite. They also coupled the FT protein to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a tag and detected the host plant’s flower promoting signal in the parasite: The tagged FT protein had migrated from host to parasite.

For dodder, it is the best strategy to synchronize flowering with that of its host. If it flowers much later than its host does, it may not be able to produce seeds at all, as the nutrients in the host are rapidly drained by the host’s reproductive tissues. The host may even rapidly die before the parasite can even starts to produce seeds. However, if dodder flowers too early, its growth is likely prematurely ended and it may not be able to produce as many seeds as the dodder plants whose flowering time is synchronized with that of their hosts.

Regressive Evolution: Gene loss as an advantage

In the course of evolution, plant parasites have lost certain traits and “outsourced” physiological processes. As a result, various genes in their genomes may be lost. “This work establishes that for a plant parasite, losing control over flowering processes can be advantageous, as it allows the parasite to hijack its host’s mobile flowering signals for its own use. It can thereby readily synchronize its physiology with that of its host”, says co-author Ian Baldwin, director of the Department Molecular Ecology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Because of the gene loss, dodder may be able to better adapt to the parasitic lifestyle and ultimately increase its fitness.

###

Original Publication:

Shen, G., Liu, N., Zhang, J., Xu, Y., Baldwin, I. T., Wu, J. (2020). Cuscuta australis (dodder) parasite eavesdrops on the host plants’ FT signals to flower. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2009445117

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009445117

Further information:

Dr. Jianqiang Wu, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 132# Lanhei Road, Heilongtan, Kunming,Yunnan Province, China 650201, e-mail [email protected]

Prof. Dr. Ian Baldwin, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, 07745 Jena, Tel. +49 3641 57-1101, E-Mail [email protected]

Contact and Picture Requests:

Angela Overmeyer M.A., Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Str. 8, 07743 Jena, Germany, Tel. +49 3641 57-2110, E-Mail [email protected]

Download of videos and high-resolution images via http://www.ice.mpg.de/ext/downloads2020.html

Media Contact
Dr. Jianqiang Wu
[email protected]

Original Source

http://www.ice.mpg.de/ext/index.php?id=1645&L=0

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009445117

Tags: AgricultureBiologyBiotechnologyEcology/EnvironmentFertilizers/Pest ManagementMolecular BiologyParasitologyPhysiologyPlant Sciences
Share13Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Boosting Graduate Seminar Engagement with Active Learning

August 28, 2025

Study Finds Lack of Strong Evidence Supporting Alternative Autism Treatments

August 28, 2025

Balancing High-Value Care with Eco-Friendly Testing Practices

August 28, 2025

Breakthrough Self-Assembling Material Paves the Way for Fully Recyclable EV Batteries

August 28, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    149 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 37
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    142 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    115 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    82 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Boosting Graduate Seminar Engagement with Active Learning

Study Finds Lack of Strong Evidence Supporting Alternative Autism Treatments

Balancing High-Value Care with Eco-Friendly Testing Practices

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.