Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Sci. STKE, 27 February 2007
Vol. 2007, Issue 375, p. tw72
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.3752007tw72]

EDITORS' CHOICE

Botany Coordinating Plant Defenses

Pamela J. Hines

Science, AAAS, Washington, DC 20005, USA

Plants respond to pathogen attack by recognizing molecular signals from the invaders and instigating their own cellular responses to limit damage. Shen et al. now show that two of the plant’s defense systems themselves interact at the level of gene transcription. Studying barley’s MLA proteins, part of one of the plant pathogen response pathways, the authors show how these proteins are localized to the nucleus, where they alter transcription of factors that regulate the other plant pathogen response pathway. The plant’s response to pathogenic attack is thus coordinated and tuned to be appropriate to the challenge.

Q.-H. Shen, Y. Saijo, S. Mauch, C. Biskup, S. Bieri, B. Keller, H. Seki, B. Ülker, I. E. Somssich, P. Schulze-Lefert, Nuclear activity of MLA immune receptors links isolate-specific and basal disease-resistance responses. Science 315, 1098-1103 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]

J. L. Dangl, Nibbling at the plant cell nucleus. Science 315, 1088-1089 (2007). [Summary] [Full Text]

Citation: P. J. Hines, Coordinating Plant Defenses. Sci. STKE 2007, tw72 (2007).

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882