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Small-molecule antagonists of germination of the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica

Nature Chemical Biology volume 12, pages 724–729 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Striga spp. (witchweed) is an obligate parasitic plant that attaches to host roots to deplete them of nutrients. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the most destructive Striga species, Striga hermonthica, parasitizes major food crops affecting two-thirds of the arable land and over 100 million people. One potential weakness in the Striga infection process is the way it senses the presence of a host crop. Striga only germinates in the presence of the plant hormone strigolactone, which exudes from a host root. Hence small molecules that perturb strigolactone signaling may be useful tools for disrupting the Striga lifecycle. Here we developed a chemical screen to suppress strigolactone signaling in the model plant Arabidopsis. One compound, soporidine, specifically inhibited a S. hermonthica strigolactone receptor and inhibited the parasite's germination. This indicates that strigolactone-based screens using Arabidopsis are useful in identifying lead compounds to combat Striga infestations.

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Figure 1: Screen to identify SL antagonists.
Figure 2: RG compounds specifically interfere with SL signaling.
Figure 3: Biochemical characterization of SOP action.
Figure 4: SOP binds AtHTL.
Figure 5: SOP inhibits Striga germination and ShHTL7 action.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge support from National Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC 300001) to P.M. D.H.-S. was partially supported on an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship–Doctoral (PGS D).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Duncan Holbrook-Smith, Shigeo Toh & Peter McCourt

  2. Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Duncan Holbrook-Smith, Shigeo Toh & Peter McCourt

  3. Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Yuichiro Tsuchiya

Authors
  1. Duncan Holbrook-Smith
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  2. Shigeo Toh
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  3. Yuichiro Tsuchiya
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  4. Peter McCourt
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Contributions

D.H.-S. designed the study with P.M., and D.H.-S. conducted the chemical screen, yeast two-hybrid, DARTS, YLG hydrolysis and intrinsic fluorescence assays. D.H.-S. also performed the statistical analysis. S.T. and D.H.-S. performed the hypocotyl-based retest experiments and rice growth experiments. D.H.-S. and P.M. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and Y.T. and S.T. contributed to subsequent revisions of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Peter McCourt.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Results, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Figures 1–8. (PDF 3775 kb)

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Holbrook-Smith, D., Toh, S., Tsuchiya, Y. et al. Small-molecule antagonists of germination of the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica. Nat Chem Biol 12, 724–729 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2129

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