ABSTRACT
So far in this book we have treated plants largely in isolation, as discrete, living beings, and we have discussed their cell walls in the context of the plant’s own growth and development. But in the real world, on Darwin’s famous “tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds,” plants grow in complex communities with other plants, and, more important, in close association with a multitude of microbes and other organisms (Figure 8.1). In most cases these associations are of little consequence; in some there is mutual benefit, while in fewer cases there is a deleterious effect on the plant. In this chapter we will look more closely at the ways in which certain microbes have evolved to become successful pathogens of plant hosts, causing disease, and how plant cell walls come to the plant’s defense. Plants and microbes coexist. In among the dense, healthy garden plants, the stump of an ancient beech tree, now felled, is slowly being recycled by the mycelium of the white rot fungus <italic>Meripilus giganteus</italic>, whose large fruiting bodies can be seen encircling the dead tree stump. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203833476/d3469500-5fde-4ada-ac38-7885a5a510ec/content/fig8_1.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
