The parasitic vine Cuscuta campestris grows by latching onto the stems and leaves of plants and inserting organs called haustorium into the host plant tissues to draw nutrients. The haustorium is formed when ion channels in the cell membrane are stimulated during coiling and induce a reaction within the cell.

Further, Cuscuta campestris has many types of ion channels, but which ones were linked to the development of haustorium were previously unknown.

“For the first time, the genes involved in sensing mechanical stimuli that lead to the climbing of vines, such as morning glories and bindweed, have been discovered,” declared Osaka Metropolitan University Professor Koh Aoki of the Graduate School of Agriculture.

Professor Aoki led an OMU team in discovering that when the expression of the gene Cuscuta campestris MID1-COMPLEMENTING ACTIVITY1 (CcMCA1) was suppressed, the number of haustorium per centimeter decreased.

“We want to continue to identify other ion channel genes involved in this process and aim to explain the various mechanisms of plant senses on the microscopic level,” Professor Aoki added. “Furthermore, we hope this will lead to the development of measures to control plants that cause harm economically to crops.”

The findings were published in Plant and Cell Physiology.

Conflict of interest
None declared.

Funding
This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from Ohsumi Frontier Science Foundation and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant No. 19H00944) to K.A.

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