ENGINEERINGNET.BE – The well-being of organisms largely depends on the bacteria and other microbes that live in and on the organism. The total package of all those microbes is called the microbiome, which also occurs in plants.
Researchers from the universities of Cologne and Utrecht focused on Verticillium dahliae, a notorious fungus that causes wilt disease in many plants, such as tomatoes and lettuce, olive trees, ornamental trees and flowers, cotton and potatoes.
Their study shows that the fungus secretes the antimicrobial protein VdAMP3 to manipulate the plant’s microbiome as a so-called effector.
Effector molecules typically target components of the host’s immune system, leading to a reduced immune response. The researchers have shown that microbes from the microbiome are also targeted.
When the fungus colonizes its host, VdAMP3 suppresses beneficial organisms in the plant’s microbiome. This leads to a disrupted microbiome. This disruption allows the fungus to complete its life cycle and produce offspring that proliferate and initiate new infections.
A year ago, the researchers also found a molecule that does not work against competing fungi, such as VdAMP3, but against competing bacteria.
More knowledge about these kinds of mechanisms can help make plants more resistant to pathogens and develop better crop protection strategies.
Given the growing world population, limited farmland and the need to reduce environmental impact and pollution, one of the primary goals of plant scientists is to increase crop yields and minimize our carbon footprint on the environment.
In follow-up experiments, the researchers hope to identify even more effector proteins that are selectively antimicrobial. They then re-examine Verticillium dahliae, but also target other pathogens that have different infection strategies.
Unraveling how these molecules work, and how they can inhibit one microbe and not another, is important to discover new mechanisms to target microbes. This could eventually even lead to the development of new antibiotics.
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