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New plant hormone functions offer solutions for parasitic weeds

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Every year, across Africa, Asia and Australia, parasite weeds of the genus Striga cause billions of dollars in damage to global agriculture. As parasite plants, Striga possess few storage reserves of their own and survive off nutrients produced by their hosts, which include some of the world’s most important crops. Seeds of the parasite plants, dormant in the ground for many years, germinate only when they sense a host nearby, through a mechanism that is poorly understood.

Triggering this mechanism is the plant hormone strigolactone, which in addition to regulating shoot branching patterns, also acts as a chemical cue for Striga germination. To clarify the latter function, the researchers explored the effects of 10,000 small, membrane-permeable molecules on germination and early seedling development in Arabidopsis, a model plant more amenable to experimentation than Striga. Chemical screening revealed five structurally-similar compounds, “cotylimides”, which specifically boost strigolactone production, bleaching Arabidopsis seed leaves.

The researchers tested these five compounds on seeds derived from 520,000 mutant Arabidopsis plants and identified 246 lines which exhibited reduced bleaching, indicating cotylimide resistance. By analyzing a subset of these lines with characteristics similar to Striga, they uncovered that strigolactone production is boosted by light, and that the plant hormone plays a role similar to sunlight in stimulating Arabidopsis germination and greening.

These findings, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, expose a previously-unknown relationship between light and strigolactones with deep implications for our understanding of parasitic plants. As a step toward developing parasite-resistant plant species, the hints these findings provide promise to contribute to tackling food security challenges affecting millions worldwide.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Yuji Kamiya
Growth Regulation Research Team
RIKEN Plant Science Center
Tel: +81-(0)45-503-9649 / Fax: +81-(0)45-503-9665

Ms. Tomoko Ikawa (PI officer)
Global Relations Office
RIKEN
Tel: +81-(0)48-462-1225 / Fax: +81-(0)48-463-3687
Email: koho@riken.jp

Reference:

Yuichiro Tsuchiya, Danielle Vidaurre, Shigeo Toh, Atsushi Hanada, Eiji Nambara, Yuji Kamiya, Shinjiro Yamaguchi and Peter McCourt. A small-molecule screen identifies new functions for the plant hormone strigolactone. Nature Chemical Biology 6:741-749. DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.435

About the RIKEN Plant Science Center

With rapid industrialization and a world population set to top 9 billion within the next 30 years, the need to increase our food production capacity is more urgent today than it ever has been before. Avoiding a global crisis demands rapid advances in plant science research to boost crop yields and ensure a reliable supply of food, energy and plant-based materials.

The RIKEN Plant Science Center (PSC), located at the RIKEN Yokohama Research Institute in Yokohama City, Japan, is at the forefront of research efforts to uncover mechanisms underlying plant metabolism, morphology and development, and apply these findings to improving plant production. With laboratories ranging in subject area from metabolomics, to functional genomics, to plant regulation and productivity, to plant evolution and adaptation, the PSC's broad scope grants it a unique position in the network of modern plant science research. In cooperation with universities, research institutes and industry, the PSC is working to ensure a stable supply of food, materials, and energy to support a growing world population and its pressing health and environmental needs.

gro-pr | Quelle: Research asia research news
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