Deadly special deliveries

摘要

To infect plants and cause disease, many microorganisms evade or subdue plant defences so that they can proliferate unhindered within the host's tissues'. For this purpose, pathogenic bacteria have systems to deliver 'effector' proteins directly into plant cells, where they interact with plant proteins and suppress defence mechanisms. Whisson et al. (page 115 of this issue) describe how the agent of potato late blight, Phytophthora infestans, uses a special host-cell-targeting signal to attack its plant host.