Ferroptosis contributes to developmental cell death in rice blast

What is it about?

Magnaporthe oryzae is the top model pathogen for understanding fungus-plant interactions and the rice blast disease. The disease propagules called conidia form infection structures to invade the host plants. Conidia undergo precise cell death during maturation of the infection structure. We show for the first time that such specific cell death is due to ferroptosis, which is novel and requires iron and specifically generated lipid peroxides. We uncovered the molecular mechanisms that regulate ferroptosis, and show that this specific form of cell death relies in part on autophagy, and is necessary for proper host invasion by the blast fungus. We also found that precocious induction of ferroptosis in susceptible host plants leads to blast disease resistance by blocking fungal entry. Our study contributes significantly to understanding the role of iron homeostasis in fungus-plant interactions; and paves the way in developing new strategies using ferroptosis and/or lipid peroxides as crucial molecular targets for control of the devastating blast disease in important cereal crops.

Featured Image