How do pathogens exploit plasmodesmata during infection?

Fungal pathogens such as the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe and the tomato wilt pathogen Fusarium secrete effector proteins that can move between cells in plant tissue.

These pathogen proteins can move freely from cell to cell by exploiting the host plasmodesmata.

The Faulkner lab aim to determine how pathogen proteins interact with plasmodesmata and what the pathogen gains by accessing non-infected host cells.