A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control.
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2025-12
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Abstract
Xanthomonas spp. cause serious diseases in more than 400 plant species. The conserved AvrBs2 family effectors are among the most important virulence factors in xanthomonads, but how AvrBs2 promotes infection remains elusive. We found that AvrBs2 is a glycerophosphodiesterase-derived synthetase that catalyzes uridine 5'-diphosphate-α-d-galactose into a sugar phosphodiester, bis-(1,6)-cyclic dimeric α-d-galactose-phosphate, which is referred to as xanthosan. Xanthosan is synthesized by AvrBs2 in host cells and released into apoplastic spaces. Xanthomonas bacteria uptake xanthosan through the XanT transporter and hydrolyze it through the XanP phosphodiesterase for nutrition. AvrBs2, XanT, and XanP form a xanthosan "generation-uptake-utilization" system to provide a dedicated nutritional strategy to feed xanthomonads. Furthermore, elucidation of the AvrBs2-XanT-XanP virulence mechanism inspired us to develop an "anti-nutrition" strategy that should be applicable to control a wide variety of Xanthomonas diseases.
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Wang, Shanzhi, Lisong Zhu, Meng Tian, Wenyi Wu, Xu Hu, Xuan Li, Jiyang Wang, Ying Zhu, et al. (2025). A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control. Science (New York, N.Y.), 390(6779). pp. 1299–1304. 10.1126/science.ady8325 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/34030.
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Scholars@Duke
Pei Zhou
The Zhou lab focuses on the elucidation of the structure and dynamics of protein–protein and protein–ligand interactions and their functions in various cellular processes. Our current efforts are directed at enzymes and protein complexes involved in bacterial membrane biosynthesis, translesion DNA synthesis, co-transcriptional regulation, and host-pathogen interactions. Our investigations of these important cellular machineries have led to the development of novel antibiotics and cancer therapeutics, as well as the establishment of new biotechnology adventures.
The Zhou lab integrates a variety of biochemical and biophysical tools, including NMR, X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and enzymology. The lab has played a major role in the development and application of innovative NMR technologies, including high-resolution, high-dimensional spectral reconstruction techniques.
Sheng-Yang He
Interested in the fascinating world of plants, microbes or inter-organismal communication and co-evolution? Please contact Prof. Sheng-Yang He (shengyang.he@duke.edu; hes@msu.edu).
Millions of years of co-evolution between plants and microbes have resulted in an intricate web of attack, counter-attack, decoy, and hijacking mechanisms in biology. Moreover, co-evolution between plants and microbes is greatly impacted by ongoing climate change. In our lab, we probe “host-microbe-climate” interactions to answer the following fundamental questions: (1) How do microbial pathogens infect a susceptible host? (2) How do plants select beneficial microbiomes to ensure health? (3) How do climate conditions impact disease and immunity?
We use contemporary methods to address these questions, including those commonly used in molecular genetics, genomics, biochemistry, cell biology, bioinformatics, microbiology, plant biology, co-evolution and infectious disease biology.
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