Like a story out of Transylvania, one North American plant species is out for blood... or at least some sugars to feed on. Ensnaring its neighbors in its snakelike vines, puncturing their phloem with sharp appendages known as "haustoria" and draining them of every last photosynthetic drop, researchers are discovering that with one parasitic feeder, more than a quick bite is on its mind.
The parasitic species Cuscuta pentagona, commonly referred to as "strangleweed" or "dodder", is unlike other parasitic plants in a variety of ways, but shares many similarities with the tales of vampires. No, they're not averse to holy water nor garlic, in fact they might feed on both just to survive; but the species is a complex and at times violent predator of others. And recent studies indicate they may not just receive a healthy well-balanced meal from their victims, but a genetic challenge as well.
A study, published today (Aug 15) in the journal Science, provides new insights into the parasite-host interactions of many plant species offering a newly understood hypothesis on why researchers are seeing a transfer between genetic material of the parasite, as well.
"The findings demonstrate that parasitic plants can exchange large proportions of their transcriptomes with hosts" lead researcher from Virginia Tech, James Westwood said. "We're finding there is a massive, bidirectional movement of RNA between the host and the parasite. [But] as of now, we can only speculate about the importance of large-scale mRNA movement between individuals of different species."
Passing genetic information known as mRNA that encodes for proteins, vital in the functioning and growth of all cells, Westwood's team believes that this chemical communication between plants may be a sort of "Trojan horse" that allows Cuscuta pentagona to feed on the entranced plant snack.
Injecting their own mRNA into the host, it is believed that the parasitic plant species may lower the instinctual defense inhibitions of the host by creating some form of protein that allows them to feed at ease.
Although this new information is not well-understood in its complexity quite yet, as the study merely observed the mass transfer of genetic material between parasite and host, Westood and his colleagues believe that the information gathered here today may have practical applications in the near future. Potentially allowing scientists to protect host crops from parasitic predators in the future, Westwood and his team hopes that further studies will help drives these vampire-like predators back into the night.
"Parasitic plants such as witchweed and broomrape are serious problems for legumes [pod-plants like beans] and other crops that help feed some of the poorest regions in Africa and elsewhere" Westwood's colleague from Virginia Tech, Julie Scholes said. "In addition to shedding new light on host-parasite communication, Westwood's findings have exciting implications for the design of novel control strategies, based on disrupting the mRNA information that the parasite uses to 'reprogram' the host."
