Endosymbiont aids pathogenic fungi

Laila Partida-Martinez and Christian Hertweck of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Products Research and Infection Biology, Jena, Germany, demonstrated that rhizoxin, a plant-rotting toxin believed to come from pathogenic fungi in the genus Rhizopus is in fact synthesized by an endosymbiotic bacterium.1 They posit that the relationship confers a metabolic benefit to both to bacteria and its fungal host, giving each access to nutrients released by decaying plant material after infection.


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