Witchcraft and destruction

摘要

The mythical old hag Striga gained succour by drawing the life force from her young victims. Today, she lends her name to the witchweeds of the genus Striga and to the strigolactone compounds that trigger these plants to parasitize their unsuspecting host plants. But these compounds typically play a more positive part in plant biology - as hormones that control the development of roots and shoots to coordinate the capture of mineral nutrients from the soil with that of carbon from the atmosphere. The strigolactone receptor is a curious protein because it simultaneously perceives and destroys the hormone. In two papers in this issue, a target of this receptor in rice is reported to be the novel protein DWARF53, the strigolactone-dependent destruction of which blocks the outgrowth of secondary shoots.