Scientists Identify Key to Pathogen Protein Entry into Cells

Oomycetes are fungal-like organisms that cause billions of dollars of losses to agriculture, forestry and natural ecosystems every year. The oomycete Phytophthora causes the potato late blight, soybean root rot, sudden oak death and chestnut ink disease. Phytium, another oomycete genus, is a common problem in fields and greenhouses, where it kills newly emerged seedlings. Scientists from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) in the U.S. have recently identified the region of a large family of virulence proteins in oocmycetes that enables the proteins to enter the cells of their hosts.

The protein region contains the amino acid sequence motifs RXLR and dEER and has the ability to carry the virulence proteins across the membrane surrounding plant cells without any additional machinery from the pathogen. Once inside the cell, the virulence proteins suppress the process of programmed cell death, which is important in plant immunity. In addition, the scientists found out that oomycete virulence proteins and the malarial parasite Plasmodium employ the same entry mechanism. The findings could lead to the development of novel strategies to prevent oomycete infection of plants.

Read the complete article at https://www.vbi.vt.edu/public_relations/press_releases/virulence_protein_entry_into_host_cell The paper published by the journal Plant Cell is available to subscribers at http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/rapidpdf/tpc.107.056093v1