This communication describes the establishment of the type II bacterial CRISPR–Cas9 system
to efficiently disrupt target genes in the fungal maize pathogen Ustilago maydis. A single …

Biotrophic fungal plant pathogens establish an intimate relationship with their host to support
the infection process. Central to this strategy is the secretion of a range of protein effectors …

Due to their biotechnological relevance as well as their importance as disease agents,
filamentous fungi and oomycetes have been prime candidates for genetic selection and in vitro …

In the ten years since the genome sequence of the basidiomycete corn smut fungus
Ustilago maydis was published, additional genomes of smut species infecting different hosts …

The plant apoplast is a harsh environment in which hydrolytic enzymes, especially proteases,
accumulate during pathogen infection. However, the defense functions of most apoplastic …

Papain-like immune proteases (PLCPs) are promising engineering targets for crop protection,
given their significant roles in plant immunity for key crops such as tomato, maize and …

Agroinfiltration in Nicotiana benthamiana is widely used to transiently express heterologous
proteins in plants. However, the state of Agrobacterium itself is not well studied in …

Plants can detect and respond to pathogen attack due to their remarkable immune system.
The plant immune system is now understood as a pathway that integrates 2 branches (Yuan …

Plant pathogens secrete versatile virulence proteins called effectors to manipulate plant
processes that are crucial for infection. Pathogen effectors can act either outside of plant cells (…

Plant diseases caused by fungal pathogens challenge both natural ecosystems and
agricultural settings, with the latter making fungal diseases a hazard to global food security. …