Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa), a parasitic weed, was the target of a $1.5 million eradication campaign in California four decades ago. However, it has recently re-emerged in tomato fields across several counties in California’s Central Valley. We use in vitro and in vivo approaches to co-cultivate commercial tomato lines with broomrape and collect genetic data on tomato roots which was not possible with the traditional soil-based infection assays. The goal of this project is to transcriptional regulatory networks to guide the generation of tomato lines with branched broomrape resistance. This is a collaborative project with the group of N. Sinha
Leadership:
S. Brady, N. Sinha.
Labmembers:
Mona Gouran