The secret wars of plants and fungi

Very recommendable!

1. "The war started millions of years ago, but the story of its discovery starts in 1998. In that year, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello published work showing that small snippets of genetic material in the form of RNA can interfere with cellular processes and stop genes from being expressed."
2. "This “RNA interference,” which won Fire and Mello a Nobel prize in 2006, is now understood to be fairly common within organisms. It helps them grow, develop, and fight infection."
3. "Hailing Jin and her collaborators made a breakthrough in 2013 when they discovered that plants and fungi are using this RNA interference mechanism across species to hijack the processes of infection and immunity"
4. ''There is an urgent need for us to develop new antifungal drugs and new fungicides'"
5. "“This RNA-based co-evolutionary arms race has just recently been recognized,”"
6. "“A recent study from Sarah Jane Gurr’s lab showed that many fungal pathogens have developed resistance or partial resistance to almost all of the commonly used antifungal drugs on humans and animals (and fungicide in plants and crops),” warns Jin"
   Human ingenuity will take care of that!
7. "This co-evolutionary arms race, with plants and fungi developing ever more sophisticated ways to infect and resist, shows no signs of slowing down. But by understanding how the war is being fought, researchers like Jin in CIFAR’s Fungal Kingdom: Threats and Opportunities program hope to turn the tide in favour of the plants humans rely on and apply the lessons from the farm field to other settings, like the clinic."
8. "The European Union, for example, has restrictive limitations on genetic modification. A topical spray would get around those regulations and is effective in a lab setting, but RNA only lasts a few days in the field before degrading so near-constant reapplication would be required."
   Another good reason for the UK to Brexit! The EU precautionary principle is madness! We would be still living in caves had this principle already existed in the stone ages!

The secret wars of plants and fungi: CIFAR fellow Hailing Jin has uncovered the details of a chilling plot to silence opposition and subvert resistance in the fungal kingdom.