Suppression of photosynthetic capacity, biomass and relative chlorophyll content of selected host species affected by parasitic plant Cassytha filiformis L.
Cassytha filiformis infected its host through haustorium to absorb nutrients. Due to its parasitic property and growth habit with extensive coverage, C. filiformis has a great potential as cover crops in oil palm plantation. The extensive establishment is able to control weed encroachment and supp...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21906/1/Aisyah%20Zahidah%20Abd%20Rani.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21906/ http://www.mspp.org.my/ |
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| Summary: | Cassytha filiformis infected its host through haustorium to absorb nutrients. Due to its parasitic property
and growth habit with extensive coverage, C. filiformis has a great potential as cover crops in oil palm
plantation. The extensive establishment is able to control weed encroachment and suppress its
aggressiveness on crops. A study was conducted to determine the suppression of photosynthetic capacity,
biomass and relative chlorophyll content of seven crop species infected by C. filiformis. The seven
species included Asystasia intrusa Bl., Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, Ipomoea aquatica Forsk.,
Ischaemum muticum L., Manihot esculenta Crantz, Merremia umbellata (L.) Hall, and Mikania
micrantha H.B.K. The photosynthetic rate of M. micrantha was suppressed by 95.62 % while A. intrusa,
I. aquatica, M. esculenta, C. esculenta and M. umbellata were suppressed at 94.29 %, 84.00 %, 80.81 %,
67.55 % and 67.07 %, respectively. The lowest suppression of the photosynthetic rate was for I. muticum
which was 43.06 %. The rate of suppression of all species by C. filiformis could probably be related to the
morphological and physiological characteristics of the species. A strong relationship between
photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of 0.92 for infected and 0.97 for uninfected species were
recorded. Similarly, the biomass and chlorophyll content reduction were positively correlated with
photosynthetic rate depending on the level of infection by C. filiformis with values of 0.82 and 0.95,
respectively. Therefore, C. filiformis has the potential to be an effective biological control agent. |
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