Parasitism articles from across Nature Portfolio

Plant antagonists may disrupt the allocation of carbon resources from plants to mutualistic microorganisms. Here, the authors report how plants attacked by cyst nematodes and aphids maintain carbon transfer to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi through fatty acid transfer whilst the limiting the loss of sugars.

Plant-associated fungi range from pathogens to mutualists. Here the authors identify a gene cluster in a Colletotrichum tofieldiae strain that is required to allow the fungus to transition from a mutualist to a pathogen depending on the nutritional status of the host.

We have limited knowledge on how soil conditions affect microbiota and plant health. Here, the authors find that soil acidification impacts bacterial communities and reduces the capacity of soils to combat fungal pathogens such as Fusarium.

Fungi cause devastating crop diseases mediated by the deployment of effectors that suppress host innate immunity. Efficient translation of mRNAs encoding a subset of such effectors determines their secretion and, ultimately, host infection success.

The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae produces invasive hyphae in living rice cells during early infection. Here, the authors show that a fungal protein kinase promotes this biotrophic growth phase by coordinating cycles of autophagy and glutaminolysis in invasive hyphae.

Quinones are small secondary metabolites synthesized by a broad range of organisms. Perception of these aromatic molecules in plants involves membrane-bound LRR-RLKs to induce downstream cellular responses in plants such as calcium fluxes, specific gene expression and MAPK activation.

Seed germination is tightly regulated so that it only occurs in optimal environmental conditions; for root parasitic plants, this is the presence of a potential host plant revealed by strigolactone exudates. New research shows that, unexpectedly, this response to strigolactone bypasses the core gibberellin-dependent pathway for germination.