Chloramphenicol inhibits eukaryotic Ser/Thr phosphatase and infection-specific cell differentiation in the rice blast fungus

Chloramphenicol (Cm) is a broad-spectrum classic antibiotic active against prokaryotic organisms. However, Cm has severe side effects in eukaryotes of which the cause remains unknown. The plant pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae , which causes rice blast, forms an appressorium to infect the host cell via single-cell differentiation. Chloramphenicol specifically inhibits appressorium formation, which indicates that Cm has a novel molecular...