The goal of my research is to save African farmers from a parasitic plant Striga hermonthica that has been causing a huge problem to the crop production in Africa. The damage caused by the single species is devastating, as 10 billion USD worth of crops have been lost every year from the African continent and 300 million people's lives have been affected. I have been studying the mechanism on how Striga identifies the presence of host plants and am utilizing the information to develop small molecules to destroy the host-parasite communication. Using chemical genetics, I am trying to elucidate the signaling mechanism of strigolactones (SLs), which are released from the host root and stimulate Striga seed germination.

Press:

• Dr. Yuichiro Tsuchiya's research selected as a Greatest hits paper

Research Highlights:

• Green light of hope to overcome Striga-triggered food insecurity in Africa 〜Fluorescent turn-on probe identifies the 'wake-up protein' in witchweed seeds〜