Brief Communications
Nature 427, 30 (1 January 2004) | doi:10.1038/427030a
Plant degradation: A nematode expansin acting on plants
Ling Qin1, Urszula Kudla1, Erwin H. A. Roze1, Aska Goverse1, Herman Popeijus2, Jeroen Nieuwland3, Hein Overmars1, John T. Jones4, Arjen Schots2, Geert Smant1, Jaap Bakker1 and Johannes Helder1
Expansin proteins, which have so far been identified only in plants, rapidly induce extension of plant cell walls by weakening the non-covalent interactions that help to maintain their integrity1. Here we show that an animal, the plant-parasitic roundworm Globodera rostochiensis, can also produce a functional expansin, which it uses to loosen cell walls when invading its host plant. As this nematode is known to be able to disrupt covalent bonds in plant cell walls2, 3, its accompanying ability to loosen non-covalent bonds challenges the prevailing view that animals are genetically poorly equipped to degrade plant cell walls.
- Laboratory of Nematology, Graduate School of Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Antibody Technology, Graduate School of Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Experimental Botany, Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Catholic University of Nijmegen, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Plant–Pathogen Interactions Programme, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK
Correspondence to: Johannes Helder1 e-mail: Email: hans.helder@wur.nl
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