Understanding the biology of the parasitic plant, dodder
Dodder (Cuscuta spp.) are parasitic plants that do not photosynthesize and derive all their nutrition from the vascular system of host plants. More than 200 dodder species exist around the world, and they are hard to differentiate because they lack leaves and roots, and have very small flowers. Dodders are native to the US, and in Massachusetts, dodder can parasitize commercial cranberry bogs, impacting yields. In summer of 2025 the Caicedo lab and collaborators collected over 200 dodder samples in the Northeast from wild and cultivated habitats. We are identifying the species collected through whole genome sequencing, and using this data to understand which species are attaching cranberries and how different dodder species are distributed across environments.
We are searching for an undergraduate to help us manage the living collection and carry out microscopy to help us understand how dodder attachments vary according to host plant species and determine if attachments provide evidence of host preference. The student working on this project will work closely with a senior who has been working with dodder in the lab in the past two years. If you are interested in this project please write a short description of your main interests in Biology so far, why this project interests you, and what are your current plans after graduation (with the understanding that plants can often change).
We are a lab that is fascinated by how weedy plants evolve. Weeds are supreme examples of rapid adaptation, and we ultimately would like to determine the genetic basis of how they so successfully adapt. Parasitic weeds like dodder are very understudied, and by working on this project you will be helping us round out our understanding of dodder biology and also help us develop it as a study system in the lab. We collaborate with the UMass Cranberry Station and Penn State University on this work, and the project may provide chances to meet extension scientists and see how they work, as well as possibly collect dodder samples from the field. The project will provide both wet lab opportunities in microscopy and genetics, as well as hands on work with plants.