The knapweed nematode, Subanguina picridis, forms galls on the leaves, stems, and root collar of Russian knapweed, Acroptilon repens. After being revived from a dormant, cryptobiotic state, second-stage juveniles required at least 1 month in a free-living state before becoming infective. Galls were induced on relatively slow-growing host plants that retained their apical meristems at or near th...

The use of enzyme could facilitate pathogen penetration into plant host. Here the combination of cellulase and pectinase was ascertained on the pathogenicity of F. compactum (1.4 × 10(6)  propagules ml(-1)) on broomrape tubercles. F. compactum alone infected all the inoculated tubercles but did not kill any significant number. Infested tomato roots that were inoculated with mycelia plus pectina...

Trichomes are epidermal hairs found on the aerial surfaces of nearly all plants and in different species. They grow in different shapes and act as protectors against insects, microbes and herbivores. Trichomes vary in their morphology, distribution pattern on a given organ and in their histochemical images. Different trichome types were observed in the aerial parts of the two species of broomra...

Strigolactones are apocarotenoids regulating shoot branching. They are also known to be exuded by plant roots at very low concentrations, stimulating hyphal branching of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and germination of root parasitic weed seeds. We show that strigolactones play a major role in host specificity of Orobanche and Phelipanche (the broomrapes) seed germination. This observation confi...

Orobanchaceae is the largest family among the parasitic angiosperms. It comprises non-parasites, hemi- and holoparasites, making this family an ideal test case for studying the evolution of parasitism. Previous phylogenetic analyses showed that holoparasitism had arisen at least three times from the hemiparasitic taxa in Orobanchaceae. Until now, however, not all known genera of Orobanchaceae w...

Broomrape (Orobanche crenata Forsk.) is a serious problem causing important losses to lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) production and productivity in Mediterranean countries. Despite intensive breeding activities, no resistance sources against O. have been identified so far. In this study, Global Lentil Diversity Panel (GLDP) of 1315 genotypes including local populations, landraces, accessions, i...