The establishment of Ustilago bromivora and Brachypodium as a biotrophic model system provides the foundation for studying new aspects of plant-pathogen interactions and for answering questions about fungal sex and speciation.

A phosphorylation circuitry balancing among kinase, transcription factor, transcription repressor, and phosphatase in response against host immunity during M. oryzae–rice interaction.

A fungal effector secreted by the corn smut pathogen increases the virulence of the pathogen by elevating anthocyanin production and reducing lignification in maize.

A basidiomycete yeast closely related to fungal smuts is an antagonistic microbe in the Arabidopsis leaf phyllosphere that inhibits infection by Albugo laibachii via a GH25 hydrolase with lysozyme activity.

A framework has been devised that enables global participation in the curation of publications on any topic involving two or more living organisms, ranging from microscopic to larger sizes, in their natural or artificial environments or ecosystems.

Analysis of epigenetic recombinant inbred lines of Arabidopsis identified four hypomethylated DNA loci controlling quantitative disease resistance, which is associated with genome-wide priming of defence genes without affecting plant growth.

Small RNAs of distantly related plant pathogens, such as fungi and oomycetes, hijack the plant RNA-induced silencing complex to favor host infection.

The capacity for symbiosis between photosynthetic microalgae and early diverging lineages fungi was demonstrated with microscopy and stable isotope exchange of carbon and nitrogen.

Plant autophagy contributes to antiviral defense against geminiviruses by targeting one or more viral proteins for degradation.

Allelic MLA immune receptors have an exceptional propensity to directly detect sequence-unrelated pathogen effectors and this feature might have facilitated functional diversification of the receptor in the host population.