Cell-length heterogeneity: a population-level solution to growth/virulence trade-offs in the plant pathogen Dickeya dadantii.

ABSTRACT: Necrotrophic plant pathogens acquire nutrients from dead plant cells, which requires the disintegration of the plant cell wall and tissue structures by the pathogen. Infected plants lose tissue integrity and functional immunity as a result, exposing the nutrient rich, decayed tissues to the environment. One challenge for the necrotrophs to successfully cause secondary infection (infection spread from an initially infected plant to the nearby uninfected plants) is to effectively utilize nutrients released from hosts towards building up a large population before other saprophytes come. In this study, we observed that the necrotrophic pathogen Dickeya dadantii exhibited heterogeneity in bacterial cell length in an isogenic population during infection of potato tuber. While some cells were reg

SUBMITTER: Cui Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6695200 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature