ABOVE: GIMMIE: A pathogenic bacteria that steals Allium triquetrum’s iron may be key to controlling the invasive weed.
FLICKR, A.POULOS (IYA)
EDITOR'S CHOICE IN Microbiology
The paper
R. Grinter et al., “FusC, a member of the M16 protease family acquired by bacteria for iron piracy against plants,” PLOS Biol, 16:e2006026, 2018.
In Australia, the pathogenic bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum decimates the invasive angled onion (Allium triquetrum, also known as the three-cornered leek or onion weed), by causing the plant to rot. One of the bacterium’s strengths is its ability to sap the plant’s iron reserves, but exactly how it does this has been a mystery. The answer could hold the key to using the bacterial species, and others like it, to control noxious weeds.
After sequencing the genome of the Australian strain of P. carotovorum, Trevor Lithgow, a microbiologist at Monash University in Melbourne,...
Plants use a similar strategy to harvest iron from their surroundings. It’s not clear whether the bacterium acquired the genes for iron piracy from the plants themselves or evolved them independently, the authors explain in their paper. Matthew Barber, a molecular biologist at the University of Oregon who was not involved in the research, says the iron-acquisition model is not completely fleshed out yet, but is worthy of more investigation. Still, he says, it’s “pretty cool” how bacteria have tapped into plants’ iron source to survive.
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