11 March 2026, by Website Team Biologie

Most land plants undergo a friendly partnership with symbiotic fungi. Two research teams (AG Weiberg, Department of Biology at the University of Hamburg & AG Gutjahr, Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology) via a collaborative project (funded by the DFG-RU5116) have now discovered that mycorrhiza-forming fungi send small RNAs into its host plants to shut-off gene expression by cross-kingdom RNA interference. This type of RNA communication seems to be relevant for symbiosis development. Major results have now been published in Nature Plants.