Sources: Frank White, 785-532-1362, fwhite@k-state.edu;
and Ginny Antony, 785-532-1355, ginns@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Jennifer Torline, 785-532-0847, jtorline@k-state.edu

Friday, Dec. 17, 2010

1xbet online games login LOOKS AT PATHOGENIC ATTACKS ON HOST PLANTS

MANHATTAN -- Two Kansas State University researchers focusing on rice genetics are providing a better understanding of how pathogens take over a 1xbet online games login 's nutrients.

Their 1xbet online games login provides insight into ways of reducing crop losses or developing new avenues for medicinal 1xbet online games login .

Frank White, professor of 1xbet online games login pathology, and Ginny Antony, postdoctoral fellow in 1xbet online games login pathology, are co-authors, in partnership with researchers at three other institutions, of an article in a recent issue of the journal Nature. The article, "Sugar transporters for intercellular exchange and nutrition of pathogens," was led by Li-Qing Chen from the department of 1xbet online games login biology in the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University.

The project involves the identification a family of sugar transporters, called SWEETS, which transport glucose between 1xbet online games login cells. These transporters are also important because they are targeted by pathogens trying to obtain 1xbet online games login sugar for nutrition.

"It's remarkable," White said. "These bacteria are able to regulate the 1xbet online games login genes directly by inserting proteins into the 1xbet online games login cells. The proteins take over the transcription of the SWEET gene, and the 1xbet online games login , as a consequence, becomes susceptible to bacterial disease."

White and Antony focused specifically on rice bacterial disease and tried to understand what makes rice susceptible and what makes it resistant to specific pathogens. The K-State researchers discovered three resistance genes in rice that can be mutated in order to build the resistance of the rice against a pathogen. One of these resistance genes -- Xa13 -- is included in the Nature article and was discovered by White's lab in 2006.

"We've identified the genes that bacteria can induce to cause the 1xbet online games login to be susceptible," White said. "We've identified them as critical for disease from a pathogen standpoint. For the 1xbet online games login , these genes are involved in normal development. However, once the pathogen takes control of expression, it makes the 1xbet online games login susceptible."

White and Antony also have an article appearing in the December issue of the journal The 1xbet online games login Cell. They collaborated with researchers from Iowa State University to investigate a second susceptibility gene and its role in the spread of disease.

White's laboratory has been working on such rice 1xbet online games login for 15 years, but started collaborating with the Stanford researchers earlier this year.

&1xbet online games login ;We have been trying to understand what the pathogen wants from the host, how the pathogen gets it, and how the host tries to defend itself,&1xbet online games login ; Antony said.

Although the research is important in the field of 1xbet online games login genetics, it has broader applications as well. Because researchers have a better understanding of how to control pathogen food supplies, they can use this research to reduce crop diseases and subsequent losses. The 1xbet online games login research may also apply the findings to humans or animals because both use similar sugar transporter genes to transfer glucose, leading to new possibilities for medicine and diabetes research.

White and Antony are in the midst of a three-year, -million National Science Foundation grant, and have also been funded in their 1xbet online games login by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National 1xbet online games login Initiative program through the Cooperative State 1xbet online games login , Education and Extension Service.