News Plants

Green Red-Alert: Plant fights invaders with animal-like trick

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Mustard plants launch an immunological response to bacteria much as animals do, researchers have found.

DAMAGE REPORT. Several days after exposure to bacteria, leaves from a normal mustard plant (top row) show less damage from disease than do leaves from a plant in which a nitric oxide–synthesizer gene was disabled (bottom). D. Zeidler and Durner

The laboratory mustard Arabidopsis thaliana reacts with a burst of nitric oxide when it encounters certain compounds from bacterial cells, says Jörg Durner of GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg, Germany.