Conferring resistance to parasitic witchweed by shifting strigolactone biosynthesis

Rouhallah Sharifi; Jianping Chen; Zongtao Sun; Jian Chen

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2023.04.009

Conferring resistance to parasitic witchweed by shifting strigolactone biosynthesis

Trends Parasitol. 2023 Jul;39(7):496-498. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.04.009. Epub 2023 May 10.

Authors

Rouhallah Sharifi¹, Jianping Chen², Zongtao Sun³, Jian Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.
² State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Key Laboratory of Biotechnology in Plant Protection of Ministry of Agriculture and Zhejiang Province, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Key Laboratory of Biotechnology in Plant Protection of Ministry of Agriculture and Zhejiang Province, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China. Electronic address: sunzongtao@nbu.edu.cn.
⁴ International Genome Center, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: jianchen@ujs.edu.cn.

PMID: 37173197
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.04.009

Abstract

Strigolactones from the exudates of maize root induce germination of the parasitic witchweed Striga. Recently, Li et al. characterized the biosynthesis pathway of two strigolactones, zealactol and zealactonoic acid, which induce less Striga germination than the major maize strigolactone, zealactone. This study provides a promising strategy for plant protection against parasitic witchweed.

Keywords: Striga; maize; parasitic witchweed; resistance; strigolactones.

MeSH terms

Lactones / metabolism
Plants
Striga* / metabolism

Substances

GR24 strigolactone
Lactones