Plants send small RNAs in extracellular vesicles to fungal pathogen to silence virulence genes.
Qiang CaiLulu QiaoMing WangBaoye HeFeng-Mao LinJared PalmquistSienna-Da HuangHailing JinPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2018)
Some pathogens and pests deliver small RNAs (sRNAs) into host cells to suppress host immunity. Conversely, hosts also transfer sRNAs into pathogens and pests to inhibit their virulence. Although sRNA trafficking has been observed in a wide variety of interactions, how sRNAs are transferred, especially from hosts to pathogens and pests, is still unknown. Here, we show that host Arabidopsis cells secrete exosome-like extracellular vesicles to deliver sRNAs into fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea These sRNA-containing vesicles accumulate at the infection sites and are taken up by the fungal cells. Transferred host sRNAs induce silencing of fungal genes critical for pathogenicity. Thus, Arabidopsis has adapted exosome-mediated cross-kingdom RNA interference as part of its immune responses during the evolutionary arms race with the pathogen.
Keyphrases
- induced apoptosis
- antimicrobial resistance
- immune response
- escherichia coli
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- staphylococcus aureus
- genome wide
- gram negative
- cell wall
- candida albicans
- transcription factor
- biofilm formation
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- gene expression
- oxidative stress
- signaling pathway
- cell proliferation
- cystic fibrosis
- toll like receptor
- inflammatory response