A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control
<i>Xanthomonas</i> spp. cause serious diseases in more than 400 plant species. The conserved AvrBs2 family effectors are among the most important virulence factors in xanthomonads, but how AvrBs2 promotes infection remains elusive. We found that AvrBs2 is a glycerophosphodiesterase-derived synthetase that catalyzes uridine 5'-diphosphate-α-d-galactose into a sugar phosphodiester, bis-(1,6)-cyclic dimeric α-d-galactose-phosphate, which is referred to as xanthosan. Xanthosan is synthesized by AvrBs2 in host cells and released into apoplastic spaces. <i>Xanthomonas</i> bacteria uptake xanthosan through the XanT transporter and hydrolyze it through the XanP phosphodiesterase for nutrition. AvrBs2, XanT, and XanP form a xanthosan "generation-uptake-utilization" system to provide a dedicated nutritional strategy to feed xanthomonads. Furthermore, elucidation of the AvrBs2-XanT-XanP virulence mechanism inspired us to develop an "anti-nutrition" strategy that should be applicable to control a wide variety of <i>Xanthomonas</i> diseases.
Authors
- Zhao‐Qing Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8890-6621)
- Pei Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7823-3416)
- Linlu Qi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7210-5077)
- Baohui Mou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-5712)
- Mingan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3852-0672)
- Shanzhi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8281-5013)
- Ying Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2021-5012)
- Fuhao Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8413-146X)
- Sheng Yang He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1308-498X)
- Wenyi Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4958-8760)
- Zhi Long Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8988-6546)
- Brian J. Staskawicz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9711-3962)
- Weiwei Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9320-9628)
- Wenxian Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6352-2461)
- Xuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1768-9556)
- Jiyang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4781-3829)
- Xu Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6896-1623)
- Dayong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5398-8513)
- Yong‐Hwan Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2462-1250)
- Jiaqing Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6155-1696)
- Lingxiang Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5480-482X)
- Jiyun Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4629-5978)
- Jie Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4694-0183)
- Meng Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8753-4009)
Institutions
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Southwest University (CN)
- Duke University (US)
- Jilin University (CN)
- Innovative Genomics Institute (US)
- Ministry of Agriculture (ID)
- First Hospital of Jilin University (CN)
- Jilin Agricultural University (CN)
- China Agricultural University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady8325
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Plant Pathogenic Bacteria Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 10.50