Immune Response Against Pest Attacks not Simple as it Seems

Insect attacks and pathogen infestations elicit immune responses in the form of plant hormones from the affected plant. In thale cress, the response is a complicated defense technique that does not necessarily depend on the same genes, as Dutch researcher Vivian van Oosten found out. Van Oosten exposed thale cress to five different plant pests with various attack strategies: aphids, thrips, caterpillars, bacteria and fungi. The composition and quantity of the plant hormones jasmonic acid, ethylene, and salicylic acid that the plant produces as a response, was specific for each pest. Analysis of the activated genes made it clear that every hormone composition in the plant led to an extremely complex expression file, and that immune responses in thale cress are attacker-specific.

Readers can access the article at http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_6ZYL8N_Eng.