Triggering parasitic plant ‘suicide’ to help farmers

Parasitic weeds are ruthless freeliders, stealing nutrients from crops and crops are destructive. But what if farmers can take these invaders into self-destruction? Scientists at UC Rivaruside feel that they have found a way.

In sub-Sahara Africa and parts of Asia, the entire fields of staples such as already struggling places, rice and sorbet can be lost to a group of insidious weeds that can grow their nutrient crops before growing. Farmers fight these parasites with some effective tools, but UCR researchers may be able to be able to turn the biology of weeds against them.

This is the trick Detailed In the journal ScienceAnd it has a square of hormones called stringolactones in the heart – which plays a dual role. Internal, they help in growing growth for stresses such as insufficient water and controlling the response of plants. Externally, they do something that is uncommon for plant hormones.

David Nelson, a UCR plant biologist and co-author of paper, said, “Most of the time, the plant hormones are not externally radiated-they do not leave. But they do it.” “Plants use stringolactone to attract fungi into the soil that have beneficial relations with the roots of the plant.”

Unfortunately, for farmers, parasitic weeds have learned to kidnap stringolactone signals, used as an invitation to attack them.

Once weeds understand the presence of stringolactones, they sprout on the roots of a crop and exclude them from the essential nutrients.

Nelson said, “These mournings are waiting for a signal to wake up. We can give him that indication at the wrong time – when there is no food for them – so they sprout and die,” Nelson said. “It is like flipping his own switch against them, essentially encourages them to commit suicide.”

To understand the stringolactone production, the research team led by Yanran Lee in UCR in the east and now in UC San Diego developed an innovative system using bacteria and yeast. Engineering E. To function like small chemical factories by coli and yeast cells, they re -created the biological stages required to produce these hormones. This success allows researchers to study stringolactone synthesis in a controlled environment and potentially produce these valuable chemicals in large amounts.

Researchers also studied enzymes responsible for the production of stringolactone, identifying a metabolic branch point that could be important in the development of these hormones from internal regulators to external signals.

“This plant is a powerful system to investigate enzymes,” Nelson said. “This enables us to mark the genes that have never been studied before and manipulate them to see how they affect the type of stringolactone.”

Beyond agriculture, stringolactones promise for therapy and environmental applications. Some studies suggest that they can be used as anti-cancer or viral anti-viral agents, and their potential role in dealing with citrus greening disease, which is causing large-scale damage to citrus crops in Florida.

Scientists still have questions whether weed suicides strategy will work in real -world areas. “We are testing whether we can fix the chemical signal to be even more effective,” Nelson said. “If we can, it can be a game-changer for farmers struggling with these mournings.”

The research was led by UCR professor and geneticist Julia Bailey-Seres.