image: Keeping your victim alive. Epidermal plant cells are extensively colonized by the feeding haustoria which effectively turn off all recognition devices and keep the plant alive for the duration of the infection, thus enabling the mildew to take up food and produce more spores for further dissemination. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Dec. 10, 2010, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Pietro D. Spanu at Imperial College London in London, UK, and colleagues was titled, "Genome Expansion and Gene Loss in Powdery Mildew Fungi Reveal Tradeoffs in Extreme Parasitism." view more
Credit: Image © <i>Science</i>/AAAS