People

Group photo outside Latham hall with fall colors

Photo of the Westwood lab group — Here is the team in November 2021

Hope Gruszewski
Technician

I help support the many interesting research projects in the Westwood lab. My current research focuses on developing protocols for tissue culture and transformation of Cuscuta (Dodder).

Imen Tanniche
Postdoctoral Associate

My research focuses on understanding the role of miRNA in dodder-host interactions

Imen at the lab bench

Suzanne Laliberte
Ph.D. Student

Sukhmanpreet Kaur
Ph.D. Student

Krissy Pieczynski
Undergraduate Student

Current News

Catch the podcast where Jim discusses the future of weed control!

Croptastic, the Inner Plant podcast, Episode 20. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1333906/10000655

LATEST PUBLICATIONS

2022

Plants: 2022. Mobile host mRNAs are translated to protein in the associated parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris. 93. Go to: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11010093

2021

BioRxiv: An artificial host system enables the obligate parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris to grow and complete its life cycle in vitro. Go to: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449293v1.
Trends in Plant Science: 2021. Into the weeds: new insights in plant stress. Go to: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2021.06.003.
Current Biology: Plant biology: Genome reveals secrets of the alien within. Go to: DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.012
Plant Physiology: Plasma membrane phylloquinone biosynthesis in non-photosynthetic parasitic plants. Go to: DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiab031

2020

PeerJ: Multiple immune pathways control susceptibility of Arabidopsis thaliana to the parasitic weed Phelipanche aegyptiaca. Go to: DOI: 10.7717/peerj.9268
Weed Science: A new race of sunflower broomrape (Orobanche cumana) with a wider host range due to changes in seed response to strigolactones. Go to: DOI: 10.1017/wsc.2019.73

2019

Nature: A phylogenomic view of evolutionary complexity in green plants. Go to: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1693-2
Crop Protection: Growth-defense tradeoffs and source-sink relationship during both faba bean and lentil interactions with Orobanche crenata Forsk. Go to: DOI: 10.1016/j.cropro.2019.104924
Annual Review of Phytopathology: Molecular dialog between parasitic plants and their hosts. Go to: DOI: 10.1146/annurev-phyto-082718-100043
Nature Plants: Convergent horizontal transfer and crosstalk of mobile nucleic acids in parasitic plants. Go to: DOI: 10.1038/s41477-019-0458-0
Metabolites: Comparative metabolomics of early development of the parasitic plants Phelipanche aegyptiaca and Triphysaria versicolor. Go to: DOI:10.3390/metabo9060114