Species of Orobanchaceae parasitize the roots of nearby host plants to rob them of water and other nutrients. Parasitism can be debilitating to the host plant, and some of the world's most pernicious agricultural pests are parasitic weeds. We demonstrate here that interfering hairpin constructs transformed into host plants can silence expression of the targeted genes in the parasite. Transgenic...

Abstract Parasitic plants infect other by forming haustoria, specialized multicellular organs consisting of several cell types, each which has unique morphological features and physiological roles associated with parasitism. Understanding the spatial organization types is, therefore, great importance in elucidating functions haustoria. Here, we report a three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction ha...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite primers were developed in the hemiparasitic perennial forb Castilleja sessiliflora to investigate patterns of gene flow and genetic diversity within and among populations. • METHODS AND RESULTS Twelve polymorphic loci were identified in C. sessiliflora and tested on three populations (32 individuals each) sampled across the range of the specie...