Fungal pathogenesis: Combatting the oxidative burst Nature Microbiology, Published online: 27 June 2017; doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.95 Plants respond to microbial attack with a lethal burst of reactive oxygen species. How then, do pathogens successfully invade plants? Unexpectedly, a link between primary metabolism and suppression of plant immunity allows the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae to grow in such a hostile environment.