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This Focus issue on plant–microbe interactions showcases advances in our understanding of the intricate relationships between plants and their microbial friends and foes.
This month's Genome Watch traces the evolutionary history of powdery mildew and highlights the 'arms race' of this fungal pathogen with its wheat and barley hosts.
In plants, RNA silencing targets viral RNA for degradation, and viruses have evolved mechanisms to avoid silencing, most notably by expressing silencing suppressors. The recent identification of silencing suppressors in plant pathogenic bacteria and oomycetes suggests that RNA silencing functions in plant defence against a broad range of pathogens, not just viruses. There is also increasing evidence that plants have evolved counter-counter-defence responses to pathogen-mediated RNA-silencing suppression.
Structural biology studies of proteins involved in plant pathogen–host interactions are crucial to understanding the molecular mechanisms of both pathogen virulence and host defence. Banfield and colleagues review the current developments in the structural biology of plant–pathogen interactions, highlighting examples in which structural studies have had the biggest effect on our understanding of molecular function.
Geminiviruses are important plant pathogens that cause devastating crop losses worldwide. Here, Hanley-Bowdoin and colleagues review how viral proteins interact with cellular machineries and reprogramme cellular control pathways in their plant host to support viral DNA replication, gene expression and trafficking, and to interfere with host defences.
The rhizosphere – the interface between plant roots and soil – is an intriguingly complex and dynamic niche. Laurent Philippot and colleagues review recent progress in rhizosphere research and suggest that going back to the roots could be crucial to further improve the sustainability of crop production.
Giraldo and Valent review the latest research into the molecular and cellular biology of the effectors that are secreted during biotrophic invasion of plant cells by eukaryotic filamentous pathogens, with an emphasis on results obtained by live-cell imaging of effector dynamics during natural plant invasions.
The global population is predicted to reach >9 billion by 2050, putting unprecedented pressure on already scarce natural resources. To tackle the population increase and the associated increased consumption there is an urgent need to increase food production in a sustainable manner. One important pressure on global food security that is often overlooked is that posed by plant pathogens, which cause devastating losses in staple crops including rice and wheat each year. This special Focus issue of Nature Reviews Microbiologyon Plant–Microbe Interactions presents five Reviews from leading experts discussing the latest advances in our understanding of the relationship between bacterial, viral and eukaryotic filamentous pathogens and their plant hosts.