Understanding the Developmental Regulation of Plant Parasitism

Parasitic plants are widespread pathogens that damage plants and cause major economic losses.

They attach to their host plants and withdraw nutrients using an infective structure called the haustorium that invades host tissues.

The formation of the haustorium is critical for parasite success yet we have little understanding of how parasites modify their hosts to allow for tissue invasion.

Using the parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, our group has recently discovered that host developmental pathways are altered by infection suggesting the parasite modifies host development to its advantage.

Our goal is to identify how Phtheirospermum changes host development and to understand what host developmental programs are affected.

We will undertake an anatomical approach to characterise the host invasion process looking at changes in tissue morphology, vascular connectivity, cell division and cell walls.

We will use transcriptomic approaches to identify developmental genes upregulated in the host during infection and knock out or overexpress these genes to understand their role and to modify the host’s resistance to parasitism.

Finally, we will use proteomic and transcriptomic approaches to look for proteins secreted by the parasite that move into the host and enhance virulence.

Together, this research will characterise a previously undescribed regulatory phenomenon and provide tools to enhance resistance in hosts to parasite plants.