Source Newsroom: American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop
Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of
America (SSSA) Newswise — Versatile and responsive to
management, corn is grown throughout the world for everything
from food to animal feed to fuel. A new use for corn could soon
join that list, as researchers in China investigate the crop’s
ability to induce “suicidal germination” in a devastating
parasitic weed. Known commonly as sunflower broomrape, the weed
causes extensive damage to vegetable and row crops in Asia,
Africa, and southern Eastern Europe. Lacking chlorophyll, it is
a parasite and completely dependent on a host plant for water
and nutrients. An infestation of broomrape in sunflower fields
can reduce yields by 50%. Sunflower is one of the main oil crops
in China, and in one county, over 64% of a sunflower field
covering more than 24,000 acres is currently infested. Several
strategies have been tested to stop the damage caused by
broomrape, including chemical and cultural method