Abstract
RICE SEEDLING BLIGHT, AN economically costly agricultural disease, is caused by a toxin released by certain Rhizopus fungi. Long thought to be produced by the fungus itself, this toxin has now been shown to be biosynthesized by bacteria that live symbiotically inside the fungus. This unexpected finding—by professor Christian Hertweck and graduate student Laila P. Partida-Martinez of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Products Research & Infection Biology in Jena, Germany—reveals a complex and unprecedented symbiotic alliance that pits fungus and bacterium against plant { Nature 2005, 437, 884). At the center of this alliance is rhizoxin, a macrocyclic polyketide natural product produced by the bacterium. Rhizoxin binding to a rice structural protein known as β-tubulin blocks cell division and weakens or kills the rice plant. By showing that an antibiotic can be used to generate a symbiont-free fungus unable to produce rhizoxin, Hertweck and Partida-Martinez have revealed new strategies for controlling rice...
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