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Plants fight fungi using kiwellin proteins

Fungal infection can affect crop yield. A plant protein found to counter fungal-induced interference with host metabolism illuminates antifungal defences and mechanisms that inhibit metabolic enzymes.
  1. Mary C. Wildermuth

    1. Mary C. Wildermuth is in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

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Organisms, such as fungi, that cause disease in plants often secrete proteins that aid growth and reproduction in the host. These are termed effector proteins, and some are deregulated metabolic enzymes that manipulate key metabolic pathways in plants. Writing in Nature, Han et al.1 reveal that a protein in maize (corn) blocks the enzymatic activity of a fungal effector enzyme, thereby thwarting the effector’s ability to influence maize metabolism in a way that limits the plant’s defence response.

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Nature 565, 575-577 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00092-2

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