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| Botrytis Cinerea |
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| Grey Mold |
At the University of California in Riverside, a plant pathologist and a research team has discovered a severe fungal pathogen that infects majority of fruits and vegetables. In the fungus Botrytis cinerea, there is a mechanism by which infection takes place called a virulence mechanism. The infection takes place in these types of foods that express and secrete pathogens so that they can enable them to achieve many factors in their host. More than 200 plant species can be infected by this pathogen that have been sitting around for more than a week. In the cells of the hosts, protein effectors are delivered by many bacterial, fungal, and oomycete pathogens. These proteins help manipulate and eventually help compromise the host immunity. The difference between this new study and the information already known is the fact that this is the first example of a fungal pathogen delivering RNA effectors. Hailing Jin, a professor of plant pathology and microbiology, stated “We expect our work will help in the development of new means to control aggressive pathogens.” In the fungus Botrytis cinerea, RNA silences the hosts defense genes. This results in the host being able to resist the fungal attack. It is similar to the process of protein effectors, but instead of releasing protein it releases RNA. With these results Jin and colleagues plan to use this information against other aggressive pathogens.
Very informative article. Didn't know there were different types of mold and about pathogens in them. I knew it was bacteria like when you find it on cream cheese or fruit. Is mold actually bad for you then because people have said to me before "a little mold never killed anyone". Curious as to the effect it would have on a person and wha other pathogens they plan on studying now.
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't know that mold produced protein effectors, so this article was definitely informative! Now that we have discovered that mold can also produce RNA effectors, does this have a different effect on us then with the protein effectors? Does mold even harm us at all? I know mold produces pathogens which is a bacterium/virus, but isn't protein supposed to be beneficial to us? There are so many questions that have popped in my mind from this article, which is a good thing, but this article only provides us with so much information.
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