Bacterial pathogens are microorganisms that infect plants and cause disease by hijacking cellular processes, disrupting normal plant physiology, and overcoming immune defenses. Understanding plant-pathogen interactions is critical for developing resistant crop varieties, improving food security, and uncovering the molecular mechanisms plants use to detect and respond to microbial threats.
Scientists discovered how a soil bacterium that causes devastating wilting disease in tomatoes and peppers disarms plant defenses: it injects a protein called RipG6 that hijacks the plant's own cellular recycling system to destroy a key immune signaling component.
1
RipG6 suppresses plant immune responses only when its F-box motif is intact, confirming it works by hijacking the plant's ubiquitin-proteasome protein-degradation machinery.
2
RipG6 directly interacts with and reduces the stability of a tomato immune kinase (RLCK-VIII-6), effectively dismantling a plant defense signaling component.
3
Closely related versions of the targeted kinase in wild tobacco and thale cress both function as positive regulators of plant immunity, suggesting this is a broadly conserved defense target across plant species.
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