Interplant signal transduction between dodder (Cuscuta) and their hosts.
Zhang J, Shen G, Cui S, Wang W, Wu J
Plant Signaling
That stringy orange vine strangling the plants in your garden bed is doing something stranger than theft — it's wiring its victims together into a shared signaling network, making it both a biological curiosity and a genuine threat to understand.
Dodder is a leafless, thread-like parasitic plant that wraps around other plants and taps into their vascular system. Scientists have discovered it doesn't just drain its hosts — it passes molecules like tiny genetic messages and proteins back and forth, almost like a living communications cable. This means a dodder plant can connect two separate host plants so they're indirectly 'talking' to each other, with real effects on how each plant grows and fights off threats.
Key Findings
Dodder transfers not only water and nutrients but also systemic signals, mRNAs, small RNAs, and proteins bidirectionally between itself and host plants.
Multiple host plants connected by a single dodder plant can exchange biomolecules indirectly through the parasite, forming an interplant signaling network.
Transferred macromolecules have documented functional consequences, altering the physiology and ecology of recipient plants — not merely passing through as inert cargo.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Dodder, a parasitic vine that attaches to other plants, doesn't just steal water and nutrients — it also shuttles genetic signals and proteins between its host plants, potentially altering how those hosts grow, defend themselves, and interact with their environment.
Abstract Preview
Parasitic plants partly or completely depend on their host plants for growth and development. Through haustoria, parasitic plants extract water and nutrients from their hosts. However, there is als...
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Species Mentioned
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Cuscuta, commonly known as dodder or amarbel, is a genus of over 201 species of yellow, orange, or red parasitic plants. The genus possess minimal chlorophyll and utilize haustoria to extract nutrient and water from host's vascular system. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutac...