James Westwood
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Discoveries in Dr. Westwood's lab seek to better understand parasitic plants and their adaptations as well as their economic impact in agriculture. Primarly his work focuses on invasive parasite plant - host plant communications and evolutionary mechanisms of crop parasitic weeds.
Dr. Westwood's lab was the first to report that messenger RNA (mRNA) from host plants can move into Cuscuta and continues to be a leader in characterizing the exchange of RNAs between plants.
Research Interests
Parasitic plants, plant communication, weed evolution