Plants and pathogens are involved in a tug of war. A lot of that fight takes place in the extracellular space, the space between cells, in plant tissues. There plants secrete an arsenal of defence molecules, like proteases, glycosidases and lipases. Pathogens do this as well including some inhibitors. So how come those inhibitors don’t inhibit the pathogen’s own arsenal?
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A new regulatory element enables bacterial uptake by plant cells
Plants take up nitrogen fixing bacteria when they start a symbiosis with them. Now new research shows that it is not a specific gene, but a regulatory element of genes that allows plant to do this.
Parasite plants give their development a headstart
For their nutrients are parasitic plants dependent on their host plant. Logically they make sure to time their germination accordingly. Up till now the assumption was that parasitic plants only develop an haustorium when they perceive specific haustorium inducing signals from their host. Now a new study shows that that is not the whole story.
Twisting stems and the golden rule
Most plants orient their leaves around their stem according to the principle of the golden rule. This comes down to that every subsequent leaf is oriented at an angle of about 137.5 degrees compared to its predecessor. Now researchers found out how the plant does this.
Plant en Zo 