Rapeseed and the enemy in the soil

Growths on rapeseed roots due to infestation with Plasmodiophora brassicae Photo: Andreas von Tiedemann Research group led by Göttingen University identifies importance of bacteria for germination of disease-causing fungus Crops have a high nutritional value, which makes them essential to people. However, this also makes them attractive to harmful microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi. In fact, most pathogens can only attack specific plants and there has been extensive research to try to discover how fungi locate their host plants. Until now, it was thought that host plants stimulate fungal spores in soil to germinate by releasing specific sugars, amino acids and other compounds from their roots - known as -root exudates thereby unwittingly triggering their own infestation. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now shown that this is not the primary mechanism for triggering spore germination that leads to root infection. Instead, the activity of the spores is influenced by a combination of different abiotic factors and particular soil bacteria communities. The results were published in PLOS Pathogens .