1994/01/01 by Andrew Moravcsik, Édouard Evangelisti, Liron Shenhav +4 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · #Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology #European Union Policy and Governance #Microtubule and mitosis dynamics #Protist diversity and phylogeny
paper · doi:10.1128/mbio.01516-19
openalex publication_date 2019/09/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Despite their fungal morphology, oomycetes constitute a distinct group of protists related to brown algae and diatoms. Many oomycetes are pathogens and cause diseases of plants, insects, mammals, and humans. Extensive efforts have been made to understand the molecular basis of oomycete infection, but durable protection against these pathogens is yet to be achieved. We use a plant-pathogenic oomycete to decipher a key physiological aspect of oomycete growth and infection. We show that oomycete nuclei travel actively and over long distances within hyphae and during infection. Such movements require microtubules anchored on the centrosome. Nuclei hydrodynamically adapt their shape to travel in or against the flow. In contrast, fungi lack a centrosome and have much less flexible nuclei. Our findings provide a basis for modeling of flexible nuclear shapes in branched hyphal networks and may help in finding hard-to-evade targets to develop specific antioomycete strategies and achieve durable crop disease protection.