VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of scientists from the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), China, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPICE), Germany, has discovered that parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta (dodder) not only deplete nutrients from their host plants, but also function as important “information brokers” among neighboring plants, when insects feed on host plants.

Dodder, a parasitic vine, grows rapidly, entwining and parasitizing its host plants by inserting haustoria (a special organ that only parasitic plants have and functions somewhat similarly as roots) into the host plants’ stems. The ­dodder vines can often connect different host plants together forming a network. If any plant in the network is attacked by herbivores, expressions of defense genes in the unattacked neighboring plants are activated.

The plants are now on alert and become more resistant to their enemies. Plants of the genus Cuscuta have colorful folk names, such as wizard’s net, devil’s guts, strangle tare or witch’s hair. They are leaf- and rootless parasites and grow on their host plants without touching the soil. Their haustoria penetrate their host plants to extract water and nutrients. Dodder vines fuse their vascular systems with those of its host plants, connecting them with its network.