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Bioinformatic and experimental analyses revealed pathogen-derived pathoPEP candidates predicted to control plant miRNA expression and infection.

PubMed · 2026-05-18

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.

1

Pathogens appear to produce short peptides (called pathoPEPs) that mimic plant-native miPEPs, potentially hijacking the plant's microRNA gene-regulation system

2

Bioinformatic analysis identified multiple candidate pathoPEP sequences across pathogen genomes that share significant homology with host miPEP sequences

3

Experimental analyses supported the hypothesis that these pathogen-derived peptides can modulate host microRNA expression, suggesting a novel mechanism of host manipulation

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