Striga hermonthica Striga hermonthica Striga hermonthica, commonly known as purple witchweed or giant witchweed, is a hemiparasitic plant that belongs to the family Orobanchaceae. It is devastating to major crops such as sorghum ("Sorghum bicolor") and rice ("Oryza sativa"). In sub-Saharan Africa, apart from sorghum and rice, it also infests maize ("Zea mays"), pearl millet ("Pennisetum glaucum"), and sugar cane ("Saccharum officinarum"). "Striga hermonthica" has undergone horizontal gene transfer from "Sorghum" to its nuclear genome. The "S. hermonthica" gene, "ShContig9483", is most like a "Sorghum bicolor" gene, and additionally shows significant but lesser similarity to a gene from "Oryza sativa". It shows
12-oxophytodienoate reductase 12-oxophytodienoate reductase 12-oxophytodienoate reductase (OPRs) is an enzyme of the family of Old Yellow Enzymes (OYE). OPRs are grouped into two groups: OPRI and OPRII – the second group is the focus of this article, as the function of the first group is unknown, but is the subject of current research. The OPR enzyme utilizes the cofactor flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and catalyzes the following reaction in the jasmonic acid synthesis pathway: This reaction occurs in peroxisomes in plants. Several isozymes have been discovered, with varying substrate stereospecificity: three in "Lycopersicon esculentum", 13 in "Oryza sativa", and five in "Arabidopsis thaliana".