Mounting a Molecular Attack: Study Uncovers Strategies Plant Pathogens Use to Manipulate Host’s Cellular Recycling Systems
The ceaseless confrontations between host and pathogen play out on a microscopic battlefield. Both host and pathogen use various strategies to gain the upper hand in these molecular skirmishes.
Autophagy—the biological process responsible for recycling cellular components and degrading protein aggregates and damaged organelles—helps all eukaryotes, including plants, defend themselves against harm. Literally meaning “self-eating,” this process helps prevent infections from pathogens and plays a key role in immunity.
But pathogens have evolved molecular strategies to manipulate the autophagy process for their benefit. How exactly they do this remains a molecular mystery, but researchers are starting to lift the veil shrouding the process.