The chestnut blight fungus has successfully established an intermediary, diverse European bridgehead population, giving rise to a highly invasive clonal lineage spreading across southeastern Europe.

Active DNA demethylation at some defence gene promoters is causal for DNA binding of WRKY transcription factors as well as for transcriptional activation of these genes during plant immune response.

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.

Assessment of DNA methylation, histone modifications, and DNA accessibility revealed that physical DNA characteristics are associated with adaptive genome evolution in the broad host range plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae.

The Cajal body is essential for plants to deploy antiviral DNA methylation.

KATANIN1 in stigma papilla cells prevents disordered pollen tube growth and straightens pollen tube direction, allowing the pollen tube to find its correct path to the underlying female tissues.

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

The MADA motif is functionally conserved across NLRs from distantly related plants and has degenerated in sensor NLRs over evolutionary time.

Superfamilies of trans-species small RNAs from the parasitic plant Cuscuta have sequence variation that correspond to synonymous site variation in host plant target mRNAs.

Transporters shared by fungal intracellular parasites provide new insights into the evolution of nucleotide and energy parasitism.