Thomas Spallek

Call for Travel Grant Applications – 18th World Congress on Parasitic Plants (WCPP2026) - International Parasitic Plant Society We are pleased to announce the availability of IPPS travel grants to support students and early-career researchers participating in the 18th World Congress on Parasitic Plants, taking place May 31 – J...

The IPPS is offering €1,000 travel grants for MSc, PhD, and postdocs attending the 18th World Congress on Parasitic Plants (May 31–June 6, 2026, Brazil). Find out how to apply:
www.parasiticplants.org/2026/03/call...

That’s true. It looked even better in reality—clearly one of the most looked-at Pj agar plates in our department :)

Thank you!

Thank you, Yasu! It took a while.

Thank you, Hiro!

Big news from our lab: we can now stably edit the genome of a parasitic plant! Transgene-free, genome-edited P. japonicum in one generation! This will transform how we study #parasiticplants and other hard-to-transform plants.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Nicolas - with a “c”of course 😉

Nikolas and I just published our insights on CLEs in plant–bio interactions. Too short to cover everything, but we hope it gets you also excited about these peptides. Thanks to @newphyt.bsky.social for the opportunity

New #preprint from the lab: When one plant parasitizes another, the impact goes beyond nutrient loss. We show that parasitism weakens the host plant’s immunity, leaving it highly susceptible to microbial infections. Find out why: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #PlantImmunity #ParasiticPlants

Hawi & Durga celebrate their well-deserved PhDs by climbing the city fountain and kissing the Gänseliesel goodbye.

The weed threat to mustard, and the need to counter it with innovative solutions India’s largest oilseed crop is facing a serious menace from Orobanche, a parasitic weed that has inflicted damage in major mustard-growing areas of Rajasthan and Haryana.

The weed threat to mustard, and the need to counter it with innovative solutions
indianexpress.com/article/expl...

India’s largest oilseed crop is facing a serious menace from Orobanche, a parasitic weed that has inflicted damage in major mustard-growing areas of Rajasthan and Haryana.

Congratulations Hawi! Well done!

Well done, Durga @durgaprasadn.bsky.social - great presentation and disputation!

Box 1. (shortened, full legend in paper): Key developments in understanding the role of CLE signalling in plant development. This scheme represents a summary on the selected latest advances in CLE signalling. (A) In a series of publications, Yuki Hirakawa and his team (Takahashi et al., 2021, 2023) characterized the CLE pathway in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha that positively controls cell divisions via repressing the transcription factor JINGASA. (B) In Arabidopsis, CLV3/CLV1 signalling in the shoot was found to be buffering auxin-dependent development under different thermal conditions (John et al., 2023). (C) Research from several teams showed that the BAM3/CLE pathway is crucial for root protophloem development (Hu et al., 2018, 2022; Qian et al., 2022; Carbonnel et al., 2023). Moreover, the study by Carbonnel et al. (2023) identified an uncharacterized Arabidopsis CLE33 gene that acted in concert with CLE45 via BAM3 in root protophloem development.

🌱 EXPERT VIEW 🌱

In all land plants, small secreted peptides belonging to the CLE family move from cell to cell and activate their cognate receptors to control a plethora of developmental processes - Cornelis & Hazak

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 @hazaklab.bsky.social

Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.

New Post: Haustorium 88 is now available for download on the IPPS website. www.parasiticplants.org/2025/11/haus...

Glucosylation of endogenous haustorium-inducing factors underpins kin avoidance in parasitic plants Parasitic plants rarely attack themselves, suggesting the existence of a kin-avoidance mechanism. In the root parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, prehaustorium formation is triggered by host-se...

Simon's mutant finally published! Well done, Satoko' lab with Harro, Tobimatsu, Tohge collaborations. Glucosylation of endogenous haustorium-inducing factors underpins kin avoidance in parasitic plants | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

November IPPS Seminars by Guillaume Brun and Martina Leso - International Parasitic Plant Society We are pleased to announce the speakers for our November IPPS seminars. First talk: Dr. Guillaume Brun from Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, will talk about “Seed metab...

We’re pleased to share the speakers for our November IPPS seminar: Guillaume Brun and Martina Leso
www.parasiticplants.org/2025/10/nove...

IPPS Online Seminar on October 1st, 2025, by Guojing SHEN and Laia JENÉ - International Parasitic Plant Society The IPPS October Seminar will again feature two talks: Guojing SHEN from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, will talk about: ‘Unraveling Cuscuta-host interactions: hormone/r...

Happy to announce the speakers of our October IPPS Online seminar: Guojing Shen and Laia Jené
www.parasiticplants.org/2025/09/ipps...

#parasiticplants

Announcement of a chromosome-level assembly and annotation of #parasiticplant Cuscuta campestris

A close-up of the development of a parasitic endophyte by @l-teixeiracosta.bsky.social and colleagues. #parasiticplants

A receptor antagonist counterbalances multiple systemin phytocytokines in tomato Tight regulation of immune activation is crucial for plant health. How plants control the actions of their immunostimulatory phytocytokines is largely…

Check out this new story from the Felix lab, with some contribution from us:
Receptor antagonist prevents hyperactivation of the plant immune system
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fantastic news! I hope Amal will return to parasitic plants one day.

#parasiticplants

Haustorium - International Parasitic Plant Society Haustorium HAUSTORIUM, Parasitic Plants Newsletter (ISSN 1944-6969) is edited by Chris Parker, Lytton Musselman and Luiza Teixeira-Costa. It is published by the IPPS twice a year and distributed elect...

...here is the link to the latest and all previous editions. Consider joining the IPPS @parasiticplants.bsky.social to support your scientific society:
www.parasiticplants.org/haustorium/

Drawing your attention to this wonderful resource from the IPPS – the Haustorium Newsletter edited by Chris Parker – now in its 87th edition. Chris, who is a few years older than the number of this issue, reviewed recent publications on parasitic plants and commented briefly on most of them (>200).

Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi Nuclei define eukaryotes, enabling macromolecular compartmentalization and cellular regulation. Each nucleus is believed to contain one or more haploid sets of chromosomes (1N). However, we discovered...

What's going on in fungi?? Chromosomes are distributed across several different nuclei in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea

Article in @science.org here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
And Perspective here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

18th World Congress on Parasitic Plants - June 2026 - International Parasitic Plant Society We are excited to share that the 18th World Congress on Parasitic Plants will be held at the Instituto Bahia dos Vermelhos in Ilhabela, Brazil, from June 14 to June 20, 2026. Join us for a week of pre...

Save the date - the WCPP is coming to Brazil in June 2026!
www.parasiticplants.org/2025/04/18th...

Interessant und dazu passend ist auch folgende Mitteilung aus dem Jahr 1997, erschienen in den Osnabrücker Naturwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen:
publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/25820/...