Growth Assay for the Stem Parasitic Plants of the Genus Cuscuta

Abstract

Cuscuta spp. are widespread obligate holoparasitic plants with a broad host spectrum. Rootless Cuscuta penetrates host stems with so called haustoria to form a direct connection to the host vascular tissue (Dawson et al., 1994; Lanini and Kogan, 2005; Kaiser et al., 2015). This connection allows a steady uptake of water, assimilates and essential nutrients from the host plant and therefore enables Cuscuta growth and proliferation. To quantify the parasites’ ability to grow on potential host plants one can use the quantitative growth assay (Hegenauer et al., 2016) described herein, which exclusively utilizes fresh weight measurement as readout.