What is it about?
To prevent plant disease, it is crucial to understand which factors determine whether a pathogen can successfully infect a plant. To gain new insights, we investigated how a beneficial yeast can inhibit the pathogenic oomycete A. laibachii. We found that the pathogen is associated with certain bacteria on the plant surface that can protect it from inhibition by the antagonistic yeast and from competing bacteria. By inhibiting the bacteria that protect the pathogen from its microbial competitors through a secreted enzyme (a GH25 lysozyme), the antagonistic yeast can indirectly reduce infection and protect the plant from the pathogen.
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Photo by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Ensuring food security for a growing global population is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Therefore, researching infections caused by pathogens and combating them is of crucial importance. Here, we provide new insights into the dynamics of microbiota on leaf surfaces and propose strategies for disease control through modulation of the microbiome.
Perspectives
Working on this story was a great pleasure, since it kept surprising me! I hope this article can highlight how complex interactions in the microbiome are and that an observed inhibition can include many unexpected turns and is not a one-way street.
Zarah Sorger
Universitat zu Koln
We are only just beginning to understand how interactions between different microbes determine whether or not plants remain healthy or become diseased. Our research has revealed that such intricate interactions can be regulated by a single enzyme. I believe there are many more such interactions to be elucidated, and gaining an understanding of them will help us to better comprehend the development of plant diseases.
Gunther Doehlemann
Universitat zu Koln
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: GH25 lysozyme mediates tripartite interkingdom interactions and microbial competition on the plant leaf surface, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2510124122.
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