Abstract
Expansin proteins, which have so far been identified only in plants, rapidly induce extension of plant cell walls by weakening the non-covalent interactions that help to maintain their integrity1. Here we show that an animal, the plant-parasitic roundworm Globodera rostochiensis, can also produce a functional expansin, which it uses to loosen cell walls when invading its host plant. As this nematode is known to be able to disrupt covalent bonds in plant cell walls2,3, its accompanying ability to loosen non-covalent bonds challenges the prevailing view that animals are genetically poorly equipped to degrade plant cell walls.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cosgrove, D. J. Nature 407, 321–326 (2000).
Popeijus, H. et al. Nature 406, 36–37 (2000).
Jaubert, S., Laffaire, J. B., Abad, P. & Rosso, M. N. FEBS Lett. 522, 109–112 (2002).
Cosgrove, D. J. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 3, 73–78 (2000).
Qin, L. et al. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 13, 830–836 (2000).
Davis, E. L. et al. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 38, 365–396 (2000).
McQueen, M. S., Durachko, D. M. & Cosgrove, D. J. Plant Cell 4, 1425–1433 (1992).
Laine, M. J. et al. Physiol. Mol. Plant Pathol. 57, 221–233 (2000).
Saloheimo, M. et al. Eur. J Biochem. 269, 4202–4211 (2002).
Xu, B., Hellman, U., Ersson, B. & Janson, J. C. Eur. J Biochem 267, 4970–4977 (2000).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
brief communications is intended to provide a forum for brief, topical reports of general scientific interest and for technical discussion of recently published material of particular interest to non-specialist readers (communications arising). Priority will be given to contributions that have fewer than 500 words, 10 references and only one figure. Detailed guidelines are available on Nature's website (http://www.nature.com/nature).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qin, L., Kudla, U., Roze, E. et al. A nematode expansin acting on plants. Nature 427, 30 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427030a
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/427030a
This article is cited by
-
Disturbance of the hydrogen bonding in cellulose by bacterial expansin
Cellulose (2023)
-
Molecular insights into the compatible and incompatible interactions between sugar beet and the beet cyst nematode
BMC Plant Biology (2020)
-
Transcriptional profiling of underground interaction of two contrasting sunflower cultivars with the root parasitic weed Orobanche cumana
Plant and Soil (2020)
-
TgSWO from Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742 promotes growth in cucumber plants by modifying the root morphology and the cell wall architecture
Microbial Cell Factories (2019)
-
Novel global effector mining from the transcriptome of early life stages of the soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines
Scientific Reports (2018)
