Plants have to defend themselves against drought, enemies and disease. But different threats demand different responses. So how do plants know what’s attacking them?
Plants have to defend themselves against drought, enemies and disease. But different threats demand different responses. So how do plants know what’s attacking them?
Now we know more about how plants defend themselves against various dangers.
Notable new findings show that a plant’s defence systems help each other. When one system fails, another one can – at least in part – take over.
Researchers at NTNU ‘s Department of Biology have been collaborating with colleagues from Imperial College London and The Sainsbury Laboratory to discover more about how plants defend themselves. Their results have been published in the 26 June 2018 issue of Science Signaling.
Read more at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Image: Researchers exposed thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) to various injuries to see how the plants would react. They were surprised to find that the plant's different defense mechanisms could serve as a a backup for one another. (Credit: Per Harald Olsen, NTNU)
