Bioinformatic and experimental analyses revealed pathogen-derived pathoPEP candidates predicted to control plant miRNA expression and infection.
Clostres E, Penno C, El-Amrani A, Daburon V, Gazengel K
Plant Signaling
Every tomato blight, rose black spot, or squash vine borer you've battled may be winning partly by speaking your plant's own molecular language — and decoding that conversation could lead to crop protections that work with plant biology rather than against it.
Plants use tiny molecular switches called microRNAs to control which genes turn on or off. Scientists found that disease-causing microbes may make their own look-alike versions of these switches to quietly take control of the plant's defenses. By mimicking the plant's own signals, the pathogen can essentially trick the plant into lowering its guard.
Key Findings
Pathogens appear to produce short peptides (called pathoPEPs) that mimic plant-native miPEPs, potentially hijacking the plant's microRNA gene-regulation system
Bioinformatic analysis identified multiple candidate pathoPEP sequences across pathogen genomes that share significant homology with host miPEP sequences
Experimental analyses supported the hypothesis that these pathogen-derived peptides can modulate host microRNA expression, suggesting a novel mechanism of host manipulation
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers discovered that plant pathogens may produce tiny peptides that hijack the plant's own gene-silencing system, effectively using the plant's molecular machinery against itself to suppress immune responses and promote infection.
Abstract Preview
The partners of an ecological association tend to copy the biological system of their hosts. We hypothesized that microorganisms, particularly pathogens, have acquired the ability to express short ...
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