Our new paper is officially out: Sclerotinia is featured in PNAS, as we showed that the different cells along its filaments cooperate to enable the colonization of resistant plants. https://www.pnas.org/content/116/8/3193 From the abstract: Cooperation between specialized cells and organisms supports complex biological functions, from the colonization of unfavorable environments to the formation of organs and sociality. Some bacterial pathogens are known to rely on cooperation between individuals and species for efficient colonization of their host and the onset of disease. We examined the regulation of genes in cells from different parts of a fungal plant pathogen and found evidence for cooperation between these fungal cells. We further show that cooperation between fungal cells is particularly important for the efficient colonization of resistant plants. These findings establish cooperation as a mechanism supporting disease caused by fungal pathogens that should be taken into account in the design of disease management strategies. |
A little story behind the paper: On the first round of review, the comments were very positive "a fascinating study", "very clever experiment", "a very important contribution", "a really novel idea". It gave us huge motivation to address the comments, improve and revise the manuscript. Thank you reviewers for such a positive feedback! Image: A genome scale metabolic model for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, allowing to to quantify fluxes of matter through chemical reactions happening in fungal cells |