One of the main bottlenecks to deploying large-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in power plants is the energy required to separate the CO(2) from flue gas. For example, near-term CCS technology applied to coal-fired power plants is projected to reduce the net output of the plant by some 30% and to increase the cost of electricity by 60-80%. Developing capture materials and process...

Host specificity has been investigated for centuries in mistletoes, viruses, insects, parasitoids, lice and flukes, yet it is poorly understood. Reviewing the numerous studies on mistletoe host specificity may contribute to our understanding of these plants and put into context the dynamics at work in root parasitic plants and animal parasites. The mechanisms that determine host specificity in ...

Nematodes are omnipresent in nature including many species which are parasitic to plants and cause enormous economic losses in various crops. During the process of parasitism, sedentary phytonematodes use their stylet to secrete effector proteins into the plant cells to induce the development of specialized feeding structures. These effectors are used by the nematodes to develop compatible inte...

Determination of 23 populations of field dodder was conducted using light and scanning electron microscopy and subsequent molecular (PCR) methods in order to fully examine the biology and ecology of Cuscuta campestris and options for its control. The effects of different temperatures and rhizobacteria (PGPR) on germination of C. campestris seeds, as well as effects of different light treatments...

Sugar Beet Nematode (SBN), Heterodera schachtii, is one of the most destructive pests of sugar beets worldwide. It is present in all sugar beet growing areas of Wyoming and is particularly severe in fields located in close proximity to processing plants where sugar beets have been grown the longest. This soilborne, parasitic nematode attacks and destroys the small feeder roots of sugar beet pla...

Parasitic plants contain some of the most bizarre and fascinating organisms in plant kingdom. Yet they are notable for their absence from botanic gardens’ collections conservation strategies. Besides a handful species, few widespread cultivation; indeed we estimate at least 76 per cent species entirely missing today, these have never been grown all. Here, place focus on holoparasites, group lon...

In a follow-up to studies of school-children's medical knowledge among the rural Luo of western Kenya, seven mothers were asked for their knowledge of plant medicine, and the 91 plant remedies mentioned by them were collected, 74 of these remedies were identified as 69 different species (in 13 cases, the material did not allow identification of the species, in two cases, only the family could b...

Species of Orobanchaceae parasitize the roots of nearby host plants to rob them of water and other nutrients. Parasitism can be debilitating to the host plant, and some of the world's most pernicious agricultural pests are parasitic weeds. We demonstrate here that interfering hairpin constructs transformed into host plants can silence expression of the targeted genes in the parasite. Transgenic...

Background: Plant-parasitic nematodes are important pests of horticultural crops causing damage and significant reduction in the crop yield of pineapple. A survey was conducted to determine the types, frequency and population distribution of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with pineapple in some pineapple-producing states in Nigeria. A total of 30 farms were sampled from Delta, Imo, and Cr...

Plant parasitic nematodes which are highly successful parasites evolved a very specialized feeding relationship with the host plant to cause the destructive root-knot disease. They initiate their parasitic relationship with the host by releasing their secretions into root cells which in turn stimulate the root cells of the host to become specialized feeding cells which are considered as the sin...