Tag: Plant Pathogens

Weakening your opponent is an effective way to win a battle. A new paper by McCombe et al. shows that several pathogenic fungi weaken their plant hosts by disrupting their phosphate signaling pathways. Phosphate is indispensable for plant growth, as a component of ATP, nucleotides, phospholipids, and…

The soil microbiome harbors a vast diversity of microorganisms that can be pathogenic, beneficial, or commensal to plants. A fundamental question in plant biology is how plants actively detect, differentiate, and optimize their associations with the microbiome to maintain optimal fitness. In a recent…

Don’t miss this exciting Virtual Issue from New Phytologist on “plant-microbe-microbe” interactions. That’s not a typo – many of the articles address the signals that coordinate such multi-factorial interactions, as there is a growing recognition that interrelations between microbes influence…

The composition of plant-associated microbes is influenced by plant genetics, immune responses, environmental factors, and interactions between microbes. During disease development, the microbial community at infection sites changes due to tissue damage, altered immune responses, and manipulation via…

Healthy plants possess a functional immune system, and their leaves harbor a structured microbial community, including opportunistic pathogens. These opportunistic pathogens can trigger plant diseases under conducive conditions, such as when plant immunity is compromised, and the microbial community…

The infection modes of microbes in hosts can be reversible and can range from pathogenic to mutualistic, depending on the environmental conditions. The plant-associated fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) has been shown to promote primary root growth and increase shoot fresh weight of Arabidopsis in…

Many different pathogens attack plants, and many genes have been identified that confer pathogen-specific resistance.  In a recent study, Hao et al. identified a signaling cascade that regulates broad-spectrum disease resistance. This pathway is composed of a rice ubiquitin ligase OsPUB73, a VQ motif-containing…

Tolerance against a pathogen can be achieved by either overexpressing a resistance-related gene, or removing a susceptibility-related gene. Overexpression of defense-related genes generally comes with side effects such as decreased growth and yield. On the other hand, a susceptibility factor might have…