Parasitic weed control using transgenic herbicide-resistant crops

The parasitic flowering plants Orobanche spp. (broomrapes) and Striga spp. (witchweeds) parasitize the roots of important crops, heavily reducing yields. The development of genetically-engineered herbicide-resistant crops was tested as solution to this intractable problem. Here we show that the use of three target-site resistances decimated Orobanche, demonstrating the potential of transgenic herbicide-resistant crops in the control of parasitic weeds.