Skip Navigation



AOBPreview published online on September 12, 2005
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mci263
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Content Select
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
96/6/1121    most recent
mci263v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by GONZÁLEZ-VERDEJO, C. I.
Right arrow Articles by DI PIETRO, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by GONZÁLEZ-VERDEJO, C. I.
Right arrow Articles by DI PIETRO, A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by GONZÁLEZ-VERDEJO, C. I.
Right arrow Articles by DI PIETRO, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received February 16, 2005
Revised April 21, 2005
Accepted July 29, 2005

Article

An Improved Axenic System for Studying Pre-infection Development of the Parasitic Plant Orobanche ramosa

CLARA ISABEL GONZÁLEZ-VERDEJO 1*, XABIER BARANDIARAN 2, MARIA TERESA MORENO 1, JOSE IGNACIO CUBERO 3, and ANTONIO DI PIETRO 3

1 CIFA, Alameda del Obispo, IFAPA-CICE (Junta de Andalucía) Area de Mejora y Biotecnología, Apdo. 3092, 14080 Córdoba, Spain
2 Dominion Biotecnologia, C/Josefa Valcárcel 3-5, 28027 Madrid, Spain
3 Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales C5, 14071 Córdoba, Spain

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
CLARA ISABEL GONZÁLEZ-VERDEJO, E-mail: clara2gonzalez{at}yahoo.com


  Abstract

• Background and Aims Broomrapes (Orobanche spp.) are holoparasitic weeds that cause devastating losses in many economically important crops. The molecular mechanisms that control early stages of host infection in Orobanche are poorly understood, partly due to the lack of experimentally tractable in vitro systems that allow the efficient application of molecular tools. Here an improved axenic system for the analysis of pre-infection stages in O. ramosa in the absence of the host plant is described.

• Methods An optimized protocol for seed disinfection, based on formaldehyde, was developed. Orobanche ramosa seeds were conditioned in Petri dishes with filter paper, stimulated by addition of the synthetic strigol analogue GR24, and the percentage of germination as well as attachment-organ formation was determined.

• Key Results Treatment of O. ramosa seeds with tobacco-root exudate or with GR24 resulted in highly reproducible germination rates around 70 %. A conditioning period of 8 d was both necessary and sufficient to allow optimal germination in response to GR24. Conditioned seeds that were dehydrated for several months remained fully responsive to GR24 without the need of a new conditioning period. Treatments as short as 5 min with GR24 were sufficient to fully and irreversibly induce the seed germination response. Approximately half of the germinated seeds initiated attachment-organ development. Similar rates of attachment organ induction were also detected in the rare cases of seeds that had germinated spontaneously on water.

• Conclusions The results suggest that the conditioning period produces persistent changes in the seeds required for responsiveness to external stimulants. The rapid action of GR24 suggests that it may act via a receptor-mediated signalling mechanism. While germination in O. ramosa is induced by exogenous stimuli, attachment organ differentiation appears to be triggered by unknown endogenous signals. The new in vitro culture system will have useful applications for the molecular analysis of early stages of parasitic development in Orobanche.

Keywords: Attachment-organ formation, conditioning, germination, GR24, in vitro culture, Nicotiana tabacum, Orobanche ramosa, parasitic, seed disinfection, signal.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Plant Physiol.Home page
A. Besserer, G. Becard, A. Jauneau, C. Roux, and N. Sejalon-Delmas
GR24, a Synthetic Analog of Strigolactones, Stimulates the Mitosis and Growth of the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Gigaspora rosea by Boosting Its Energy Metabolism
Plant Physiology, September 1, 2008; 148(1): 402 - 413.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Plant Physiol.Home page
M. D. Lozano-Baena, E. Prats, M. T. Moreno, D. Rubiales, and A. Perez-de-Luque
Medicago truncatula as a Model for Nonhost Resistance in Legume-Parasitic Plant Interactions
Plant Physiology, October 1, 2007; 145(2): 437 - 449.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 ANN BOT (LOND)Home page
D. Kusumoto, Y. Goldwasser, X. Xie, K. Yoneyama, Y. Takeuchi, and K. Yoneyama
Resistance of Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) to the Root Parasitic Plant Orobanche minor is Activated by Salicylate but not by Jasmonate
Ann. Bot., September 1, 2007; 100(3): 537 - 544.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J Exp BotHome page
C. I. Gonzalez-Verdejo, X. Barandiaran, M. T. Moreno, J. I. Cubero, and A. Di Pietro
A peroxidase gene expressed during early developmental stages of the parasitic plant Orobanche ramosa
J. Exp. Bot., January 1, 2006; 57(1): 185 - 192.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.