A fungal natural product that inhibits plant cellulose biosynthesis by disrupting cellulose synthase complexes.
Wu Z, Liu L, Han W, Cai X, Xiao P
Crop Improvement
Weeds evolving resistance to herbicides are quietly winning the arms race in fields that grow your bread, rice, and cooking oil — and this fungal compound points toward a new class of weed-killers that works by a mechanism weeds haven't learned to beat yet.
Plants build their cell walls using a kind of molecular factory that strings together cellulose — the stuff that makes plants rigid and strong. Scientists found that a natural chemical produced by a fungus can shut down these factories, causing plants to stop growing properly. By understanding exactly how it works, and which part of the factory it attacks, researchers can now design smarter herbicides and even breed crops that are immune to multiple weed-killers at the same time.
Key Findings
A fungal compound called 8-methyldichlorodiaporthin (MDD) blocks cellulose production in plants by pulling the cellulose-making machinery away from the cell surface where it normally operates.
Two specific genetic mutations in a cellulose-building protein (CESA1) — at positions A903T and H1024Y — make plants completely resistant to MDD, pinpointing exactly where the compound strikes.
Stacking multiple resistance mutations (against MDD, isoxaben, and ES20) into a single plant line produced crops that resisted all three herbicide classes while still growing normally.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers discovered that a compound made by fungi can stop plants from building their cell walls by dismantling the molecular machines that produce cellulose. This opens new doors for developing herbicides that target weeds in completely new ways, and for engineering crops that resist multiple weed-killers at once.
Abstract Preview
Cellulose, a primary component of plant cell walls, is synthesized by cellulose synthase complexes (CSCs) at the plasma membrane. Targeting this process with cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors (CBIs...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Arabidopsis (rockcress) is a genus of small flowering plants in the cabbage and mustard family, Brassicaceae. Arabidopsis species are native to temperate and subarctic Eurasia and North America, North Africa, and the mountains of eastern tropical Africa. This genus is of great interest since it c...