Protection against the “zombification” of plants might be possible with new research into parasitic bacteria that cause phytoplasma infections, a problem that has long vexed researchers and poses a serious threat to food crops.
An international effort involving Academia Sinica researchers was published on Sept. 30 in the journal Cell — and was featured on the front cover — exploring the molecular underpinnings of phytoplasma infection in plants.
The parasitic microbes hijack a plant’s growth, slowing the aging process and halting reproduction as they become “zombies,” living only to serve the bacteria.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology
An infection is commonly expressed in a proliferation of bushy leaves and “witches’ broom” shoots, but many other symptoms are possible, ranging from yellowing leaves to death.
Transmitted mainly by insects, phytoplasmas can infect a wide range of plant species, with the danger in Taiwan being to scallions, luffa and peanuts.
There is no known cure for an existing infection, said Academia Sinica Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology associate researcher Kuo Chih-horng (郭志鴻), who worked on the study alongside the John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, England, and the Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands.
Insecticides can kill the disease vectors, but they do their own harm to the environment, Kuo said.
Researchers have spent decades trying to find a solution, but their efforts have been complicated by the resistance of phytoplasmas to artificial laboratory cultivation without a host cell, he said.
To get around this problem, the researchers avoided traditional culturing, instead directly investigating interactions between bacterial pathogenic traits and plant proteins, Kuo said.
The key to their findings is SAP05, a bacterial protein that hijacks the process by which a plant breaks down unneeded proteins.
They discovered that SAP05 causes a plant’s protein destruction mechanism to essentially mislabel its growth proteins and throw them away, halting development.
Although the growth proteins are similar to those in animals, the researchers found that SAP05 has no effect on the insects that carry phytoplasmas between plants.
This discovery led the team to discover the two amino acids in RPN10, a plant protein receptor that interacts with SAP05.
By replacing the two amino acids with their equivalents in insects, the bacteria were prevented from hijacking the process.
This suggests that gene editing techniques targeting just these two amino acids might make plants more resistant to phytoplasma infections.
Creating resistance with such a small genetic change is a huge breakthrough, Kuo said, adding that the findings might build resistance in a variety of crops and reduce the need for pesticides.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS