Interspecific RNA Interference of SHOOT MERISTEMLESS-Like Disrupts Cuscuta pentagona Plant Parasitism

Author profile

Amos Alakonya

Current Position: Research Fellow, at the Institute of Biotechnology Research, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Education: PhD 2011(Plant Biotechnology), MS (2004) Plant Pathology, BED (Biology) at Kenyatta University, Kenya

Non-scientific Interests: Swimming, camping and watching soccer.

After completing my MS I joined KEPHIS, a regulatory organization in Kenya. For this work I reviewed confidential dossiers on biotechnology, which always made me wonder if I was doing enough to help mankind. While on one of the inspection trips I met Prof. Jesse Machuka and I requested his assistance in finding a PhD project. He communicated back to me in a short while and encouraged me to apply for admission to Kenyatta University. It is after admission that I got to know there was a program that would allow me spend time in the US sharpening my molecular skills. The project to be tackled was on the management of Striga, a devastating cereal weed in Africa. However, within the US it was not possible to work on Striga due to its invasiveness. Luckily, Neelima Sinha's lab had an ongoing Cuscuta project that had been initiated by an earlier student from Kenya. I took up this project and developed a protocol for Cuscuta synchronised infection which meant we could 'order' Cuscuta to infect as we so wished. With this it was easy to screen for phenotypes in the many transgenic lines expressing different RNA interference cassettes. With the help of the diverse talent in the Sinha lab we did large scale screening which yielded this work on disruption of the SHOOT MERISTEMLESS-Like gene in Cuscuta pentagona. The publication of our results in Plant Cell is a great motivator for refocussing our energies on understanding Striga haustorium morphogenesis and how we might combat it via cross species RNA interference.