Study Reveals Plant Signals Travel Different Routes to Turn on Defense

A recent University of Kentucky study reveals that important signaling chemicals within plant cells travel different routes to inform the plant to turn on its defense mechanisms in the presence of a pathogen.

Plant pathologists Aardra and Pradeep Kachroo study how plants fend off secondary infections, a defense mechanism known as systemic acquired resistance. In their previous studies, the scientists identified several chemicals within plant cells that help trigger this resistance. Their most recent study looked at the paths three of those chemicals travel.

The researchers found that two of the chemicals travel through the same opening between cells, called the plasmodesmata. The chemicals are helped through this "doorway" by proteins that also control the opening and closing of the "door." The third signaling chemical, salicylic acid, travels a different route, going out of one cell into the plasma membrane and then into another cell. According to Pradeep Kachroo, this is a similar route in which aspirin is taken up in the human body.

"This knowledge is very relevant to how we use chemicals for protecting our crops in the field," Pradeep said.

For more information, read the news release at the University of Kentucky website.