Excited to share our latest collaborative paper, recently published in @newphyt.bsky.social! 🌿 How do powdery mildew fungi successfully colonize plants? It turns out they don't bring their own toolkit - they hijack the plant's. Read the full study here 🔗 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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The study reveals that powdery mildew pathogens exploit the host's endogenous RALF peptide signaling pathway - mediated by the receptor kinase FERONIA (FER) - to create the right conditions for infection.

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Rather than producing RALF mimics themselves (as some other pathogens do), powdery mildew fungi rely entirely on the plant's own RALFs to modulate apoplastic pH and remodel the cell wall in ways that favor their colonization.

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We contributed #MassSpectrometry and #Proteomics expertise to the study, helping to characterize the RALF-dependent signaling events in the host.

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This work highlights a new, potentially broadly relevant mechanism of susceptibility in biotrophic fungi, with exciting implications for durable disease resistance strategies in crops. A big thank you to all the co-authors for the great collaboration!

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