Research Keyword: appressorium

Blue-stain fungus from the Jurassic provides new insights into early evolution and ecological interactions

Scientists discovered a fossilized blue-stain fungus from the Jurassic period in China, pushing back the earliest known record of these fungi by 80 million years. Blue-stain fungi are wood-colonizing organisms that cause discoloration in trees and can accelerate tree death when paired with wood-boring insects. This discovery reveals that these fungi and their relationships with insects evolved much earlier than previously thought, providing new understanding of ancient forest ecosystems and the evolution of fungal-insect interactions.

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MoMad2 With a Conserved Function in the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint Is Required for Maintaining Appressorial Turgor Pressure and Pathogenicity of Rice Blast Fungus

Rice blast fungus causes significant crop damage worldwide. This research reveals that a protein called MoMad2 helps the fungus control its cell division timing and maintains pressure in specialized infection structures called appressoria, which are needed to penetrate rice leaves. When scientists removed the MoMad2 gene, the fungus became less effective at infecting rice plants, suggesting this protein could be a target for developing new disease control strategies.

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