A secret weapon used by the killer rice blast fungus to infect host plants has been discovered in new research.
A secret weapon used by the killer rice blast fungus to infect host plants has been discovered in new research.
Rice blast is the most serious disease of rice and is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Each year, blast disease claims enough rice to feed 60 million people. The fungus also causes wheat blast which recently spread from South America to Bangladesh, threatening wheat production across South Asia.
To infect plants M.oryzae develops a domed-shaped infection cell called an appressorium that sticks to the leaf and ruptures the cuticle using huge invasive force up to 40 times of a car tyre pressure, one of the highest pressures ever shown in a living cell.
See full article at Agropages