Can You Believe Bacteria And Plants May Talk
It is wonderful to note the results of a latest research that shows bacteria have signals for individuals of the species when they are on their way to attack the rice plants. More interestingly, the rice plants also have a mechanism to talk to one another to fight this attack.
Studies like these repeatedly lead us to think what and how many astonishing things the scientists still have in their bags—talking plants is not a joke after all!
The study says the vulnerable plants coordinate to fight back the disease-causing bacteria. And the study extends its implications for human beings– leave apart the plants when it talks about learning from the plants to combat infections in human beings.
The researchers led by a California University scientist are in the limelight through the study published in the journal Discovery Medicine.
Pamela Ronald, a professor of plant pathology compares the mechanism among the bacteria with the coded messaging among the individuals of an attacking army that helps the attackers coordinate during the attack. She explains that these single-celled bacteria use biological signals while attacking plants and animals. She says scientists have long been sensing this mechanism, but it is for the first time that a signal has been discovered and described. She has even posted a blog on the outcomes of the study.
The researchers have found that the biological signal bases itself on a particular tiny protein named Ax21. And interesting fact is that some of rice plants are ready to sense and fight an attack that is coordinated through this Ax21. While most of the rice plants have no or little defense against it, a few of the plants have XA21 (mind the name is slightly different, but subtly opposite to the protein’s name). It is an immune receptor to detect the protein. Once the plant is equipped with it, the bacteria can make no harm to the plant.
Notably, the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for the year 2011 to French Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffman has been awarded for their finding of comparable receptors in animals.
