Date: March 9, 2016
Source: Radboud University
The cabbage fly is a small
animal with a big impact. Its larvae infest the roots of cabbage plants, and
their family members like rapeseed. Up to fifty percent of yield loss has been
reported. With two to three generations a year cabbage fly is a pest to fear.
It is an enigma how these animals can withstand the enormous amount of toxins
cabbage plants produce.
A complete ecosystem
'As microbiologists we
wondered if the gut bacteria had something to do with it,' says Cornelia Welte
from Radboud University
in the Netherlands .
'In a metagenomics analysis we found a gene coding for an enzyme that performed
a special trick: it degrades isothiocyanates, cabbage toxins, into harmless
pieces. We isolated the enzyme and put it in a test-tube with isothiocyanates
-- and they disappear...
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