A newly discovered immune mechanism shows how plants use internal calcium signals to fight disease, potentially opening new pathways for stronger, more resilient crops.
Plants have a hidden defence system inside their cells
Feeding a growing global population sustainably will depend on resilient crops and reliable sources of plant-based protein. Advances in engineering biology are enabling scientists to better understand how plants defend themselves and translate these insights into more productive and sustainable agricultural systems.
Scientists at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, working in collaboration with The Sainsbury Laboratory and Academia Sinica, have uncovered a previously hidden layer of plant immunity that could help support this transition.
By improving how plants defend themselves against disease, this research, published in Science, could enable higher yields, reduce reliance on pesticides, and strengthen the crops that underpin sustainable protein and future food systems.
The study shows that plants use internal signalling systems to defend themselves against disease, revealing a new layer of immunity that could reshape crop protection strategies.
“We discovered that plant immune receptors don’t just work at the cell surface — they can also target membranes surrounding organelles inside the cell, such as the chloroplast, and release calcium stored within them to activate defence,” explains Bozkurt. “This reveals a whole new layer of immune signalling that was previously unknown.”
The finding challenges long-held assumptions about how plant immune systems operate and opens new possibilities for developing crops that are more resilient, productive, and better suited to sustainable agriculture.
