Famine Prevention: Infection-Causing Enzyme in Plants as Potential Pathogen Treatment Against Plant Diseases

Scientists recently discovered previously unexplored ways to prevent crop pathologies. They found that the unusual enzyme found in the microorganism called 'Phytophthora infestans' is responsible for pathogens breaking through a plant's defenses. The same enzyme can also be used for developing effective disease control technologies.

The study titled "Secreted Pectin Monooxygenases Drive Plant Infection by Pathogenic Oomycetes," published in Science, and was led by biologists and chemists from the University of York.

They discovered that the new class of enzymes that drove famines in the 19th century and continue to afflict potato fields today can be used as a new disease control technology by the genes that encode this enzyme.

The Great Famine of the 1840s

Plant diseases have always existed throughout history. Even the Bible mentions some of these diseases that killed plants and crops, such as rusts, mildews, and blights that brought famine to communities in the past.

According to Britannica, the loss of crops due to infestation also resulted in starvation and hunger, especially in less-developed countries. Major disease outbreaks among food crops throughout the millennia have led to famine and migrations.

For instance, the Great Famine in 1845 in Europe caused starvation, death, and migration among Irish people. Out of the 8 million population of Ireland, approximately 1 million died (12.5%) of starvation, and 1.5 million (almost 19%) emigrated to the United States.

The Great Famine was caused by Phytophthora infestans, which had a tremendous effect on the economic, political, and cultural development of the US and Europe. According to APS, the Phytophthora infestans caused late blight in potatoes and tomatoes and signaled the beginning of the science of plant pathology.

Currently, researchers of the 21st century found a way of using enzymes from these microorganisms to develop disease control technologies.

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New Enzymes Offer New Potential Crop Protection Technology

Lead author Dr. Federico Sabbadin, from the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) of the University of York's Biology Department, said that the new enzymes appear to be a crucial part of all plant pathogenic oomycetes. This opens new possibilities for developing strategies to protect crops from infections.

According to the university's news release, enzymes that enable crop pathogens to degrade pectin, an important component of the plant's cell wall, and allow pathogens to infect the plant, could be disabled. Silencing the lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LMPOs) gene successfully inhibited the Phytophthora infestans infections, the researchers wrote.

CNAP Professor Simon McQueen-Mason added that the study results from interdisciplinary collaborations between biologists and chemists from the university alongside plant pathologists at the James Hutton Institute and genomicists at CNRS. CNAP Professor Neil Bruce and Professors Gideon Davis and Paul Walton from York's Department of Chemistry also contributed a lot to the study.

This study is part of the research project called the "New Enzymatic Virulence Factors in Phytophthora infestans," which will run from 2021 to 2025 with over $1 million grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).