A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, in which the Spanish researchers Ana Lopez and Estrella Luna are integrated, has discovered an immune system applicable to tomato plants, as reported by the Information and Scientific News Service (SINC).
The study, coordinated by Jurriaan Ton, and in which a researcher from the University Jaume I of Castellón, Spain, also collaborates, has shown some of the complex mechanisms behind plant immunological defence, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Although the project has been carried out working with Arabidopsis plants, the scientists have demonstrated that the results are directly applicable to tomatoes. It is all about obtaining mutated plants benefiting exclusively from the positive aspects (increased defence) of the application of beta-aminobutyric acid (BABA).
The researchers said that the plants have a mostly innate immune system, since they are provided with the same defences since birth, although the stimuli they receive during their life cycle, such as the addition of chemical compounds, can spark changes.
The work has focused on observing how a protein from the Arabidopsis thaliana acts when supplied with BABA, a substance that stimulates the immune system, but which slows down growth in high doses.
The protein is called IBI1 and functions as a BABA receptor, but also as an inducer of transfer RNA (tRNA), which in turn, through a series of intermediate processes, ultimately limits the plant's development.
The finding of this receptor has led to the discovery that its two effects are controlled by different signalling pathways, which opens the way to the finding of new strategies to separate the beneficial part (increasing plant defences) from the adverse (reducing plant growth).
To reach these conclusions, the researchers genetically modified some Arabidopsis specimens to induce a protein IBI1 deficiency. But even with the presence of BABA, the mutated plants were not resistant to pathogens.
Luna and Lopez explained that the administration of high amounts of BABA stimulates the immune system of plants, provoking a cellular stress that hinders their growth. For its part, tRNA triggers a signalling pathway for that stress, mediated by another protein, the kinase GCN2.
The researchers found that the mutated plants lacking this protein activate their defences without slowing down their growth; precisely the two characteristics that were being sought.
The process observed in tomato plants is similar to the mechanism described for Arabidopsis, so the results are directly applicable to these plants.
Source: hortoinfo.es