A nematode expansin acting on plants (original) (raw)

Plant degradation

Nature volume 427, page 30 (2004) Cite this article

Abstract

Expansin proteins, which have so far been identified only in plants, rapidly induce extension of plant cell walls by weakening the non-covalent interactions that help to maintain their integrity1. Here we show that an animal, the plant-parasitic roundworm Globodera rostochiensis, can also produce a functional expansin, which it uses to loosen cell walls when invading its host plant. As this nematode is known to be able to disrupt covalent bonds in plant cell walls2,3, its accompanying ability to loosen non-covalent bonds challenges the prevailing view that animals are genetically poorly equipped to degrade plant cell walls.

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Figure 1: Localization of the nematode Gr-Exp1 transcript and extension activity of Gr-EXP1 on plant cell walls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Nematology, Graduate School of Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, 6709 PD, The Netherlands
    Ling Qin, Urszula Kudla, Erwin H. A. Roze, Aska Goverse, Hein Overmars, Geert Smant, Jaap Bakker & Johannes Helder
  2. Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Antibody Technology, Graduate School of Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, 6709 PD, The Netherlands
    Herman Popeijus & Arjen Schots
  3. Department of Experimental Botany, Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Catholic University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, 6525 ED, The Netherlands
    Jeroen Nieuwland
  4. Plant–Pathogen Interactions Programme, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, DD2 5DA, Dundee, UK
    John T. Jones

Authors

  1. Ling Qin
  2. Urszula Kudla
  3. Erwin H. A. Roze
  4. Aska Goverse
  5. Herman Popeijus
  6. Jeroen Nieuwland
  7. Hein Overmars
  8. John T. Jones
  9. Arjen Schots
  10. Geert Smant
  11. Jaap Bakker
  12. Johannes Helder

Corresponding author

Correspondence toJohannes Helder.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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brief communications is intended to provide a forum for brief, topical reports of general scientific interest and for technical discussion of recently published material of particular interest to non-specialist readers (communications arising). Priority will be given to contributions that have fewer than 500 words, 10 references and only one figure. Detailed guidelines are available on Nature's website (http://www.nature.com/nature).

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Qin, L., Kudla, U., Roze, E. et al. A nematode expansin acting on plants.Nature 427, 30 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427030a

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