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Background   Striga species  are noxious root hemi-parasitic weeds that debilitate cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Control options for  Striga  are limited and developing  Striga  resistant crop germplasm is regarded as the best and most sustainable control measure. Efforts to improve germplasm for  Striga  resistance by a non-Genetic Modification (GM) approach, for example by exploiting natural resistance, or by a GM approach are constrained by limited information on the biological processes underpinning host-parasite associations. Additionaly, a GM approach is stymied by lack of availability of candidate resistance genes for introduction into hosts and robust transformation methods to validate gene functions. Indeed, a majority of  Striga  hosts, the world’s most cultivated cereals, are recalcitrant to genetic transformation. In maize, the existing protocols for transformation and regeneration are tedious, lengthy, and highly genotype-specific with low efficiency of transformation.    Results  We used  Agrobacterium rhizogenes  strain K599 carrying a reporter gene construct, Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), to generate transgenic composite maize plants that were challenged with the parasitic plant  Striga hermonthica . Eighty five percent of maize plants produced transgenic hairy roots expressing GFP. Consistent with most hairy roots produced in other species, transformed maize roots exhibited a hairy root phenotype, the hallmark of  A. rhizogenes  mediated transformation. Transgenic hairy roots resulting from  A. rhizogenes  transformation were readily infected by  S. hermonthica . There were no significant differences in the number and size of  S. hermonthica  individuals recovered from either transgenic or wild type roots.    Conclusions  This rapid, high throughput, transformation technique will advance our understanding of gene function in parasitic plant-host interactions.

Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions