Transforming parasitic plant research

Phelipanche aegyptiaca is an important parasitic weed that attacks many crops in Asia and the Middle East. The recent Parasite Plant Genome Project has led to significant advances in the molecular genetics of P aegyptiaca and other holoparasites, but up to now reverse genetic approaches to probe holoparasite gene function have been blocked by the absence of a transformation system for these species. The method described here therefore constitutes a significant breakthrough in holoparasitic plant research. It will open the way to molecular genetic studies of intriguing processes that are unique to parasitic plants, such as host plant recognition, haustorial formation, penetration and vascular connection.

Micrografting in a wild tobacco species

An efficient micrografting method has been developed for the wild tobacco species, Nicotiana attenuata. This will allow important questions about long distance signals and their adaptive functions to be addressed in an ecological context.

Making the handling of large genomic DNA fragments easier

The new vectors described here should greatly facilitate the process of constructing BAC genomic libraries and transferring selected fragments to binary BAC (BIBAC) vectors. This will be of particular interest to those doing positional cloning and wanting to perform complementation tests by reintroducing genomic fragments via Agrobacterium transformation.