C. Screpanti, K. Yoneyama, H. Bouwmeester
Nov 1, 2016
Citations
0
Influential Citations
25
Citations
Journal
Pest management science
Abstract
1 BRIEF HISTORY This year, it will be 50 years since the first scientific report was published on the isolation and characterization of strigol, a potent stimulant of the germination of Striga lutea seeds1. The paper from Cook and collaborators paved the way for the discovery of a range of similar molecules, collectively called strigolactones, from many different plant species, that stimulate the germination of the seeds of root parasitic plants. The discovery that strigolactones are also host detection signals for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and have an endogenous role as plant hormone opened up an exciting new area of research and today the strigolactones, with their multiple roles in rhizosphere signaling including but not limited to parasitic weeds and with new additional functions as plant hormone, are a hot topic. Particularly in the last few years, we have witnessed an exponential increase in scientific publications on the strigolactones (figure 1), which highlights the strigolactones as a very quickly evolving domain in plant science. Similarly, the substantial increase in numbers of patents filed (figure 2) on the use of strigolactones demonstrates the increasing commercial interest, particularly in agriculture. Among the different applications, the use of strigolactones to control parasitic weeds remains one of the main endeavours. Indeed parasitic weeds of the Striga and Orobanche genera, represent a serious threat to agriculture in several regions of the world and there is therefore an urgent need to find reliable solutions. Already in 2009 this journal devoted a special issue to this topic specifically on “managing parasitic weeds: integrating science and practice” and highlighted several of the associated challenges2. Since then the domain has evolved so much that a first international congress on strigolactones was organised in Wageningen in March 2015 (http://www.strigolactones.org/).