Plant defence – Plant en Zo

Plants Talk—Just Not the Way You Think

Do plants really talk among themselves or is this all just chemistry with a bit of humanising sauce put in the mix.

Sounding the alarm

Early detection of a pathogen attack can prevent the spread of an infection. But how this early detection is then translated into warning for the rest of the plant is not known. Now British researchers show in Nature Plants using a reporter system that the alarm passes through the plant much faster than first thought.

Using the pathogens tricks to gain resistance

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?

Finding an entry point

Plants are pretty good at halting entrance to unwanted pathogens. Pathogens do, however, still find a way in. The authors of a new study set out to find out how the fire blight bacteria finds its way in.