Trees use CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-related (CLE) peptides to promote ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, revealing an additional regulatory layer in tree–

Salicylic acid (SA) is a key phytohormone that orchestrates immune responses against pathogens, including Pseudomonas syringae bacteria. The timing and extent of SA accumulation are tightly controlled...

LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute will welcome plant biologist Lucia Strader as a new professor and holder of the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology in October 2025. Strader is an interna...

Receptor kinase FLS2 detects the flg22 epitope of bacterial flagellin. Here the authors identify key residues on FLS2’s concave surface that enable expanded perception of flg22 variants, allowing the ...

Advances in single-cell and spatial omics technologies have revolutionised biology by revealing the diverse molecular states of individual cells and their spatial organization within tissues. The fie...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Nature Plants - Mycorrhizal CLE mimicry

Interactions between organisms, such as those between plants and microbes, require extensive signaling between and within each organism to detect and recognize the partner and elicit an appropriate response. Multiple families of small signaling peptides regulate plant interactions with beneficial or pathogenic microbes, and sometimes both. Some of these signaling peptides transmit information between different cells or organs of the host and allow plants to orchestrate a coordinated response towards microbial mutualists or pathogens. However, not only plants produce signaling peptides required for the interactions. Microbes themselves also secrete peptide signals, which are detected by host receptors and required for infection. Among these are microbial peptides mimicking those of plants, allowing mutualistic or pathogenic microbes to hijack endogenous plant signaling pathways and evade the host immune system. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of current knowledge on host- and microbe-derived signaling peptides and their cognate receptors regulating mutualistic and parasitic plant-microbe interactions. Furthermore, we describe how microbes hijack endogenous host signaling pathways, and discuss possible crosstalk between the plant signaling pathways controlling mutualism with those modulating immune responses to pathogens.

Short summary: This study reveals that the effects of bacterial community-produced volatiles on Arabidopsis growth and root architecture are an emergent property beyond the sum of effects by individua...

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SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASES (SERKs), which are subfamily II of leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs), play diverse role…

CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-related (CLE) peptides have emerged as key regulators of plant–microbe interactions, including arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis. Here, we identify Medicago truncatula CLE16 as a positive regulator of AM symbiosis. MtCLE16 is expressed in root cells colonized by AM fungi (AMF) and its overexpression within colonized tissues increases arbuscule abundance by finetuning their growth and lifespan. Functional and transcriptomic analyses reveal that MtCLE16 acts via the M. truncatula pseudokinase CORYNE (MtCRN) and suppresses the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in roots, thereby attenuating immune responses and promoting root colonization by mutualistic AM fungi. Notably, AMF also express MtCLE16-like peptides. We show that the Rhizophagus irregularis MtCLE16-like peptide, RiCLE1, also attenuates ROS and promotes AMF colonization via MtCRN. This finding suggests that RiCLE1 can interfere with the MtCLE16-MtCRN signaling module of host roots to benefit the fungus. Our research uncovers a functional mechanism underpinning cross-kingdom signaling and molecular mimicry in mutualistic plant–microbe interactions.

CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-related (CLE) peptides have emerged as key regulators of plant–microbe interactions, including arbuscular mycorr...

CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-related (CLE) peptides have emerged as key regulators of plant–microbe interactions, including arbuscular mycorr...

This study shows that RWT4, a wheat tandem kinase, confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae by directly binding to the pathogen effector AvrPWT4 and activating host defense.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Across evolutionary scales, lineages acquire and lose traits and associated genes. Most land plants form arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, an ancient trait for enhanced nutrition that was converg...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

This method provides a robust approach for performing expansion microscopy in plant protoplasts for imaging single-cell and subcellular compartments at greatly enhanced resolution.

The authors provide a molecular explanation for how a plant stress hormone called ethylene suppresses root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi. These fungi form symbioses with most land plants...

Parasitic plants initiate rapid de novo organogenesis of a specialized feeding structure called a haustorium upon contact with their hosts. Currently, little is known about the internal signals regula...

Starships form a recently discovered superfamily of giant transposons in Pezizomycotina fungi, implicated in mediating horizontal transfer of diverse cargo genes between fungal genomes. Their elusive nature has long obscured their significance, and their impact on genome evolution remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal a surprising abundance and diversity of Starships in the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae. Remarkably, Starships dominate the plastic genomic compartments involved in host colonization, are enriched in virulence-associated genes, and exhibit genetic and epigenetic characteristics associated with adaptive genome evolution. We further uncover extensive horizontal transfer of Starships between Verticillium species and, strikingly, from distantly related Fusarium fungi. Finally, we demonstrate how Starship activity facilitated the de novo formation of a novel virulence gene. Our findings illuminate the profound influence of Starship dynamics on fungal genome evolution and the development of virulence. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.