Broomrape Threat to Agriculture

Abstract

The broomrapes are plants that have modified their biology to feed on roots of other plants, emerging above the soil only to flower. There are about 150 broomrape species, most of which infect wild plants in natural habitats without causing economic problems. However, a few of them have adapted to agricultural ecosystems becoming troublesome root parasitic weeds. The most damaging ones are Orobanche cernua, O. crenata, O. cumana, O. minor, Phelipanche aegyptiaca and P. ramosa all of which severely constrain important dicot crops in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are continuously extending to new areas, showing an ability to evolve thereby enlarging their host ranges, adapting to new areas and overcoming resistances introduced by the breeder. As flowering plants disseminated by seeds, broomrape distribution and management (containment, sanitation, cultural practices, and biological and chemical control) fall under the purview of weed science. However, broomrapes differ from standard weeds as they behave as pathogens that attach to host roots to feed on them. As for any other disease, the host plants might protect themselves by defence mechanisms that can be selected by plant breeders to develop resistant cultivars. In spite of these efforts, rather than being contained, the broomrape threat is increasing, not only extending to new suitable areas but also adapting genetically to infect new crops and to increase virulence.

Performance and Variation of Some Faba Bean Genotypes to Broomrape Infestation and Environmental Conditions

“…Breeding resistant /tolerant genotypes may provide a reliable measure of production against Orobanche (Radwan et al,1988a and b, Abdalla and Darwish, 1994and 2008, Khalil et al, 1994and Saber et al,1999. However, Rubiales (2020) considered broomrape as a great threat to global agriculture, not only to wide spread and infesting new fields but also its capability to infect new genotypes and crops which complicated the breeding outcomes and efforts (Rubiales, 2018).…”

Pea Breeding for Resistance to Rhizospheric Pathogens

“…Therefore, highly variable germplasms and an understanding of the parasitic host specificity and population dynamics are needed for implementing efficient breeding strategies. Fortunately, unlike reported biotypes in O cumana [ 210 ], there is no clear proof of the existence of biotypes for O. crenata species thus far [ 213 ]. Therefore, the effectiveness of O. crenata resistance found in a host genotype may not diverge from the environment in which it is grown.…”

Legume Breeding for the Agroecological Transition of Global Agri-Food Systems: A European Perspective

“…Also, global changes will affect the relative importance of pests and diseases impacting their geographic distribution (especially northward) and frequency of outbreaks by affecting their overwintering survival and ability to develop more generations ( Skendžić et al, 2021 ). For instance, pod borer insects ( Sharma et al, 2020 ) and the parasitic weed broomrape ( Rubiales, 2020 ) are expected to extend northward.…”