Awesome article again!
Dodder actually grows rampant where I live. When it rains, you can practically see it moving over the chaparral plants. I believe it is one of the fastest moving plants around? I read somewhere that the plant penetrating and then moving on to another plant if it is the incorrect host, is one of the quickest plant interactions, and it can cover quite a stretch of land quickly in search of its preferred host. This sheds some cool light on how it figures it out so quick. I always wondered what info exchange went down.
It says it exchanges RNA and mRNA. I wonder about the nature of their products; I'll have to read the paper. I wonder if dodder possibly transfers small-interfering RNAs, preemptively blocking the hosts immune proteins? Lots of interesting questions rolling around now.
Thanks for the post friend!
Living to Give