Plant ‘vampires’ lay in wait

Pulling the weeds out of our gardens each summer can be a painful, task. Watching the weeds return week after week is frustrating, and always leaves me wondering why the weeds grow so easily while my beautiful flowering plants struggle to survive!

Biological researcher David Nelson used genetics to explain how weeds can act like vampires (really!) use hormone signals given off by healthy plants to attach themselves to the host plant and suck out their energy and food. While most plants use photosynthesis to make their own food for energy and metabolism, these vampire weeds actually evolved to suck energy from other plants – just like other parasites.

Nelson’s research has shown how a specific group of plants (the Orobanchaceae family) have developed sensors over time, to detect hormone signals given off by other plans and stimulate growth in the parasite plant. Understanding how these plants grow and attach themselves to crops can be very important to our society. His research could lead to developing techniques to stop the growth of parasitic plants on food crops. Think of the impact this could have on the farming and agriculture industry. To stretch it even further, it made me think of how developments like this could help developing countries secure more reliable food sources. We already know that all living things change and develop over time according to their needs – and the environment they are in. Imagine the time it must have taken for these plants to develop such skills.

Of course, detecting and reaching to certain hormonal signals is not unique to plants – animals use these signals for all sorts of things, reproduction and self-defense to name a few.

Reading about Nelson’s research really made me think past the weeds in my garden, and into the depth of the living world! There is certainly a lot to learn about life at the cellular level.

You can read the article here:
https://student.societyforscience.org/article/plant-%E2%80%98vampires%E2%80%99-lay-wait  

Discussion Questions

1)  Nelson’s research showed how hormonal signals given off by certain living things can trigger growth – can you think of other organisms that rely on hormones to indicate a period of rapid growth? Why would we want to learn more about this?

2    2) Learning more about the DNA of plants and food crops can help us modify the growing environments. It is possible we could use this information to create genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food labs and build food sources do our liking. Do you think that genetically modified food is a safe and responsible way to go?