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Plant Parasitism - The Cuscuta Tomato Interaction

Neelima Sinha, Ph.D.Professor in Plant BiologyUniversity of California, Davis

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 3:30PM | PFEN 241

Infection of crop species by parasitic weeds results in crop losses affecting nearly 300 million farmers worldwide. Cuscuta spp (dodders) are successful obligate holoparasitic weeds distributed throughout the world. Parasitic weeds suppress the growth of cultivated crops, trees, shrubs and weeds. Cuscuta use their vine-like stems to attach to aboveground parts of host plants, develop haustoria, invade and extend inside the host stem. Successful parasitism is an interactive process between the host and parasite, conditioned by a number of genetic and physiological factors. We are elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying these processes. Extensive transcriptional data from numerous Cuscuta tissues including LCM dissected haustoria and the surrounding tomato host tissue using high-throughput RNAseq experiments, was used to identify C. pentagona genes that are central to and likely regulate the parasitism process. We compared these to responses seen in Striga parasitism. RNAseq was also used to identify tomato genes involved in the response to attachment by C. pentagona in resistant and susceptible tomato varieties. A combination of transient gene silencing and gene overexpressions has allowed us to generate a framework for the process by which tomato mounts a resistance to the parasite. A combined analysis of the parasite mode of action and host defense will allow us to develop host lines with higher resistant to parasitic weeds.