Editorial: Novel Plant Molecules Regulating the Interaction With Pathogenic and Beneficial Fungi
Author(s)
Date Issued
2021
Type
article
Volume
12
Start Page
644546
Journal
Abstract
Plants started colonizing land 450–470 million years ago (Humphreys et al., 2010; Rubinstein
et al., 2010; Parfrey et al., 2011). With remarkable coincidence, the first symbiotic interaction
between fungi and plants can be dated back to 400–460 million years ago (Remy et al., 1994;
Redecker et al., 2000).
In 1975, Pirozynski and Malloch hypothesized that colonization of land by plants was possible
only because a symbiotic association between a “semi-aquatic ancestral alga” and a “mycorrhizal
partner” (referred to as an “aquatic fungus” by the authors) occurred. For the authors, terrestrial
plants are “the product of this ancient and continuing partnership” which has allowed plants
“to cope with the problems of desiccation and starvation associated with terrestrial existence”
(Pirozynski and Malloch, 1975). Moreover, “land plants never had any independence” (from
mutualistic symbiosis), and “if they had, they could never have colonized the land.” According
to recent data, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi actually appeared as drivers of plant terrestrialization
in early Palaeozoic land ecosystems (Humphreys et al., 2010; Field et al., 2012; Loron et al., 2019).
Coevolution between plants and fungi has obviously led both partners to evolve mechanisms
of interaction that nowadays appears extremely sophisticated. Plants can produce molecules able
to promote beneficial interactions and molecules able to counteract pathogenic interactions. They
can sense pathogens and trigger the activation of defenses as well as communicate with beneficial
fungi and modify the plant transcriptome and metabolome in order to accommodate symbiotic
associations. The outcome of the interaction may have implications in terms of plant growth,
development, and stress resistance.
In this issue we will highlight discoveries in the field of plant-fungi interactions, particularly
around the role of plant molecules, with the belief that the development of novel plant protection
strategies will be greatly assisted in the future by understanding the mechanisms of plant microbe
communication.