Host specificity in parasitic plants—perspectives from mistletoes

Abstract

Mistletoes are very fascinating parasitic plants. For centuries, people have been kissing under mistletoes during Christmas celebrations. Unlike most common plants, mistletoes grow on the branches of other plants and rely on these "host" plants for water and nutrients. Scientists have been trying to understand why parasitic plants differ in the number of host species parasitised. Like many parasitic plants, mistletoes can parasitise several plant species or only use one or far fewer species. This review contributes to the current broad understanding of parasite-host interactions using mistletoe as a case study. Future research needs are also highlighted.

The first Loranthaceae fossils from Africa

“…Host families known from the fossil palyno-assemblage appear in bold. Loranthaceae systematics and distribution summarised from Polhill and Wiens (1998), data on host taxa compiled from Wiens and Tölken (1979), Visser (1981), Dean et al (1994), Wiens (1998, 1999), Dzerefos et al (2003), Roxburgh and Nicolson (2005), Veste (2007), Didier et al (2008), Ogunmefun et al (2013), Dlama et al (2016) and Okubamichael et al (2013Okubamichael et al ( , 2016 Roberts et al [2017] including supplements). For a full geological, stratigraphic, palaeontological and palaeoenvironmental background of this locality/core see Roberts et al (2017).…”

Host specificity and phytochemical constituents of mistletoe and twigs of parasitized plants: Implications for blanket application of mistletoe as cure-all medicine

“…Host specificity is the restricted use of available potential host species at a local scale, while host preference refers to the hierarchical ranking of host use [1]. Several factors such as seed dispersal vectors, host availability, host abundance, host compatibility and suitable niche for the parasite determine host specificity in mistletoes [2]. Mistletoe are hemiparasitic plants which access water and nutrients from other living plants [3].…”

Macroscale analysis of mistletoe host ranges in the Andean‐Patagonian forest

“…It has been proposed that temperate forest mistletoes are likely to be specific to one genus or a few host species (Norton & Carpenter ; Norton & De Lange ; Okubamichael et al . ). According to our results, this statement applies only to Misodendrum spp.…”

“…In South Africa, mistletoe species rarely share the same primary host in a local area, especially if the species are from different families (Okubamichael et al . ). The authors speculated that this could be an example of competitive exclusion, a process that contributes to a geographic mosaic of mistletoe–host interactions.…”