Plant ‘first responder’ cells warn neighbors about bacterial pathogens (IMAGE)
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Purdue University’s Weiwei Zhang, senior research scientist in botany and plant pathology and a member of the Emergent Mechanisms in Biology of Robustness Integration and Organization (EMBRIO) Institute, prepares a sample for imaging at a confocal microscope. Researchers at Purdue found that a subset of epidermal cells in plant leaves serves as early responders to chemical cues from bacterial pathogens and communicate this information to neighbors through a local traveling wave of calcium ions. The properties of this local wave suggest that distinct mechanisms are used by plants to communicate specific types of pathogen attack.
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Purdue University Photo/Joshua Clark
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