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 High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS