Unveiling fungal plant infection strategies to reshape the future of crop protection

Fungal diseases are among the leading causes of crop destruction, threatening global food security and agricultural livelihoods. Among phytopathogenic fungi, anthracnose fungi and the rice blast fungus are known to share a common infection strategy. They develop specialized melanized infection structures known as appressoria and exhibit melanized appressorium-mediated entry (MAE) into plant tissues. However, growing evidence suggests that some fungi may not follow this conventional model, raising the question of whether melanization is truly indispensable for infection.