Host-specific mortality driven by natural enemies is a widely discussed mechanism for explaining plant diversity. In principle, populations of plant species can be regulated by distinct host-specific natural enemies that have weak or nonexistent effects on heterospecific competitors, preventing any single species from becoming dominant and thus promoting diversity. Two of the first steps in exp...

Fungi occupy every inhabitable ecological niche on earth [1]. Environmental requirements vary, from species with very specific ones to species that can live under a broad range of conditions. Pathogenic fungi are those species that occupy and derive nutrients from living organisms. Some fungal pathogens completely depend on their host, while others can prosper in additional environments. Fungal...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a common host response to microbial infection [1-3]. In plants, PCD is associated with immunity to biotrophic pathogens, but it can also promote disease upon infection by necrotrophic pathogens [4]. Therefore, plant cell-suicide programs must be strictly controlled. Here we demonstrate that the Arabidopsis thaliana Brassinosteroid Insensitive 1 (BRI1)-associated r...

BACKGROUND During rice blast fungal attack, plant xylanase inhibitor proteins (XIPs) that inhibit fungal xylanase activity are believed to act as a defensive barrier against fungal pathogens. To understand the role of XIPs in rice, a xylanase inhibitor was cloned from rice. The expression of this gene was examined at the transcriptional/translational levels during compatible and incompatible in...

Auxin is a pivotal plant hormone that regulates many aspects of plant growth and development. Auxin signaling is also known to promote plant disease caused by plant pathogens. However, the mechanism by which this hormone confers susceptibility to pathogens is not well understood. Here, we present evidence that fungal and bacterial plant pathogens hijack the host auxin metabolism in Arabidopsis ...