New study overturns long-held model of how plants coordinate immune responses.
Rapid local and systemic jasmonate signalling drives initiation and establishment of plant systemic immunity
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Jasmonate activity is included systemically by pathogens. Here plants are infected by bacteria carrying different avirulence genes (avrRpm1 at bottom right, avrRps4 at bottom left, avrRpt2 at top right). A systemic immune response triggered by each Avr gene starts at different times as measured by jasmonate signalling (via JISS1:LUC). The JISS1:LUC activity lights up starting at the infiltrated leaf (*) and then spreading through the plant to adjacent and distant leaves, the earliest of which happens in under 4 hours (Bottom right). A bacteria without an avirulence gene (top left) acts as a control as the plant shows no immune response across the 24 hour period.
view moreCredit: Gaikwad, T., Breen, S., Breeze, E., Stroud, E. et al. Nature Plants (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02178-4
University of Warwick researchers discover rapid, jasmonate-driven, early immune response in plants using breakthrough live-imaging tool.
Plants mobilise their immune defences far earlier than scientists have believed for decades — and through a previously overlooked early signalling mechanism - according to a new study published in Nature Plants.
Unlike animals, plants are literally rooted to the spot and cannot deploy specialised immune cells or antibodies, nor run away. Instead, every cell must be capable of responding to attack from pathogenic viruses, bacteria, fungi, or insect pests. When attacked plants quickly initiate defence responses at the site of challenge, but they can also activate immune responses in distant, not yet infected tissues to protect the rest of the plant, a process known as Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR).
For decades, SAR has been understood to rely on the signalling molecule salicylic acid — supported by N-hydroxypipecolic acid — to execute and maintain long-lasting immune protection throughout the plant. These molecules are synthesised following infection and gradually accumulate in distant uninfected tissues.
The Warwick team now shows that before this salicylic acid-centred defence is established, plants deploy a much faster communication system: a wave of jasmonate-dependent immune signals that spreads through the plant within just a few hours, initiating SAR well before classical measures of activated SAR.
“What we show here is that whole-plant immunity is activated much faster than we ever realised,” said Professor Murray Grant, Elizabeth Creak Chair in Food Security at the University of Warwick and senior author of the study. “Classic salicylic acid–based SAR is still vital, but our work reveals a new early-warning system powered by jasmonates — hormones previously thought to suppress salicylic acid based immune response.”
“Whereas salicylic acid accumulation can take more than 24 hours, the jasmonate-dependent signal appeared within three to four hours of infection, moving rapidly through the plant’s epidermal and vascular tissues to the uninfected leaves. It is a fundamental shift in our understanding of how plant immunity works.”
Watching immunity spread in real time
To uncover this hidden early SAR phase, the researchers developed a novel jasmonate-linked SAR reporter, JISS1:LUC, which functions as a molecular tracker for this early immune activation. This tool allowed them to visualise immune signals moving out of infected leaves and across into uninfected leaves in real time.
This very early signalling phase has remained hidden until now because most traditional approaches detect immune responses during or after systemic defences are fully established, measuring classical molecular markers or SA itself, well after these jasmonate-driven signals are developed.
The results point to a multi-phase SAR strategy. “Jasmonates sound the alarm,” explained Dr Erin Stroud, Research Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at Warwick and joint first author. “They coordinate a fast, mobile immune signal, alerting the entire plant that trouble is coming. Classic signalling compounds such as salicylic acid and N-hydroxypipecolic acid then strengthen and stabilises these defences to ensure long-lasting protection.”
This study showed that even in plants unable to produce or perceive salicylic acid, the early wave of signalling occurred — but SAR disappeared when jasmonate biosynthesis was disrupted. Those plants lacking jasmonate signalling mounted normal local immune responses to infection, but failed to protect distant leaves, making them vulnerable to secondary infections.
New possibilities for crop protection
Unexpectedly, the team also found that the jasmonate signalling is required to underpin plant-wide electrical signalling, similar to signals previously linked to wound and herbivore responses.
“These electrical signals are similar to those elicited by herbivory and require functional jasmonate signalling to allow this rapid long-distance communication,” said Dr Emily Breeze, Assistant Professor at Warwick and joint first author. “Our JISS1:LUC reporter system is an excellent tool for visualising early jasmonate-based SAR initiation in real time, within hours of local attack, which gives us a unique method to explore how plants integrate hormones, calcium fluxes and bioelectricity signals to ultimately protect themselves against invaders.”
The discovery that both jasmonate and electrical signalling are elaborated during early systemic immunity opens new possibilities for engineering crops that respond to infection more quickly, limiting disease spread and yield loss, particularly under conditions where pathogens spread quickly or plants face multiple pathogen threats simultaneously.
Professor Grant concluded: “This work not only reshapes our understanding of systemic plant immunity but understanding common SAR signalling mechanisms gives us a unique lead to design strategies for bioengineering defence systems that provide broad spectrum, rather than pathogen specific crop resistance.
“Specifically, activation of systemic immunity via conditional activation of early jasmonate signalling could provide a novel approach to mitigate crop losses to devastating diseases such as rusts, blights and mildews without the needs for environmentally damaging chemical control.”
ENDS
The paper ‘Rapid local and systemic jasmonate signaling drives initiation and establishment of plant systemic immunity’ is published in Nature Plants. DOI:10.1038/s41477-025-02178-4
This work was funded by multiple BBSRC/UKRI grants (BB/P002560/1, BB/X013049/1, BB/W007126/1, BB/S506783/1), the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2013-275) and the National Science Foundation (MCB-2435880).
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact:
Matt Higgs, PhD | Media & Communications Officer (Warwick Press Office)
Email: Matt.Higgs@warwick.ac.uk | Phone: +44(0)7880 175403
About the University of Warwick
Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick is a world-leading institution known for its commitment to era-defining innovation across research and education. A connected ecosystem of staff, students and alumni, the University fosters transformative learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and bold industry partnerships across state-of-the-art facilities in the UK and global satellite hubs. Here, spirited thinkers push boundaries, experiment, and challenge conventions to create a better world.
Editor’s Box: How plants coordinate immune defence
Unlike animals, plants are sessile and do not have mobile immune cells or antibodies. Instead, each cell must be able to defend itself, and plants rely on internal signalling to coordinate responses across their tissues.
When a pathogen attacks, plants first activate local immunity, which can include the hypersensitive response — a form of controlled cell death that blocks pathogen spread. If this local defence is successful, plants then trigger systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a whole-plant immune state that makes uninfected leaves more resistant to future attacks.
SAR has been known for more than one hundred years, but how it is initiated has remained unclear. The prevailing models have focused on the hormone salicylic acid, believed to accumulate at the infection site and move slowly through the plant, taking around 8–24 hours to prime distant leaves.
The study reported here reveals a much earlier and faster phase of immune signalling. Using a novel live imaging reporter system, researchers observed immune activation spreading to distant tissues within just three to four hours of infection. This early response did not depend on salicylic acid, but instead required jasmonate hormones, calcium signalling, and unexpectedly, initiated long-distance electrical activity across the plant.
The findings suggest that plants employ a two-stage immune strategy: a rapid jasmonate-driven alert system that initiates systemic defence, followed by slower salicylic acid–dependent signalling that stabilises and sustains immunity. This fast-signalling layer helps explain how plants coordinate effective whole-body defence despite lacking a circulating immune system.
JISS1 (Jasmonate) expression is induced systemically by infection. White asterisk indicates infiltrated leaf. Images are false coloured by signal intensity, as indicated by individual calibration bars. (A) Luciferase activity in JISS1:LUC plants following DCavrRpm1, DC, DChrpA or mock (MgCl2) challenges at 4:30 hpi. (B) Temporal spatial dynamics of luciferase activity in JISS1:LUC plants following DCavrRpm1 challenge, initiating at 3 hpi. 3.20 hpi, 3.50 hpi and 4.30 hpi images capture the systemic spread of the signal over time. (C) Different Avr genes display temporal specificity in activation of systemic JISS1:LUC; DCavrRpm1 (4 hpi), DCavrRps4 (13:20 hpi) and DCavrRpt2 (15:20 hpi), compared to DChrpA control.
Credit
Gaikwad, T., Breen, S., Breeze, E., Stroud, E. et al. Nature Plants (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02178-4
Journal
Nature Plants
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Rapid local and systemic jasmonate signalling drives the initiation and establishment of plant systemic immunity
How to achieve efficient and non-destructive tomato picking?
Higher Education Press
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view moreCredit: HIGHER EDUCATON PRESS
Tomatoes are an important vegetable crop worldwide, but their picking operations have long relied on manual labor, facing problems such as high labor intensity, high costs, and easy fruit damage. In protected tomato cultivation, fruits often grow in clusters with dense branches and leaves. Traditional mechanical picking equipment is prone to environmental interference, resulting in low picking success rates or high damage rates. How to achieve efficient and non-destructive picking of tomatoes in complex planting environments?
The team of Qizhi Yang from the School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, in collaboration with Dr. Min M. Addy et al. from the University of Minnesota (USA), has developed a rigid-flexible coupling end-effector integrating a telescopic suction cup and a three-finger gripper, providing an innovative solution to this problem. The related paper has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025643).
This study innovatively adopts a collaborative “adhesion-clamping” operation mode. The end-effector first extends the vacuum sucker to adsorb the target tomato, pulls it out from the branches and leaves to avoid interference, and then activates the three-finger gripper to complete the clamping. This step-by-step operation process solves the defects of the traditional single clamping or adhesion methods——the former is easy to damage the fruit due to improper force, while the latter has insufficient stability affected by surface curvature and humidity.
The team determined the optimal operation parameters through 180 sets of experiments: a 270° rotation angle combined with an 8.36 N compound force. Experimental data show that under these parameters, the picking time is reduced by 40% compared with traditional machinery, and the picking cycle for a single fruit only takes 5.4 seconds. By establishing a composite analysis framework of adhesion force (3.58 N) and clamping force (5.94 N), the system achieves an 88% picking success rate, with the fruit damage rate controlled below 0.5%. In the test under simulated greenhouse environment (22 ℃, 60% humidity), the operation efficiency of this equipment is 55% higher than that of manual picking, and it can work continuously to reduce labor intensity.
In response to the complex light conditions in the greenhouse environment, the study adopts the YOLOv5 + HSV hybrid recognition model. By integrating deep learning algorithms and color space analysis technology, the recognition accuracy and speed of nighttime picking are improved. Performance comparison shows that compared with pure adhesion-type (success rate 84%, damage rate 1.4%) and pure clamping-type (success rate 81%, damage rate 7.7%) end-effectors, the new system has significant comprehensive advantages in success rate, damage rate, and operation speed.
This study provides key technical support for tomato picking robots. Its rigid-flexible coupling design concept has been verified by experiments and can effectively meet the needs of mechanized picking of protected tomatoes. With the intensification of the agricultural labor shortage problem, the application of such intelligent equipment will effectively reduce production costs and promote the development of protected agriculture towards high efficiency and precision.
Journal
Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Design and performance evaluation of a rigid-flexible coupling end-effector for tomato picking robots
Article Publication Date
6-Jan-2026
Researchers uncover new signaling pathway that helps plants cope with nitrate deficiency
Study identifies key ROS-WRKY-NRT2 module that enhances nitrate uptake under low nitrate conditions, offering potential strategies to improve crop nitrogen use efficiency.
Science China Press
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LN stress induces RBOHC protein accumulation through an unknown mechanism to produce more ROS. ROS, in turn, promotes the expression of WRKY42 and WRKY58. Particularly, WRKY42 directly transactivates the expression of NRT2.1/NRT2.2/NRT2.4 by binding their promoters, thereby increasing the nitrate uptake and improving plant growth under LN conditions. Whereas WRKY58 regulates the expression of these NRT2 genes in an indirect way
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Credit: Created with BioRender.com
Nitrogen is essential for plant growth, but its availability in soil often fluctuates. To cope with nitrate scarcity, plants have evolved sophisticated responses, though many underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In a new study published in Science Bulletin, researchers have delineated a previously unknown signaling cascade that helps plants better absorb nitrate under low nitrogen conditions.
The study focused on the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in nitrate starvation responses. Using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model, the team found that the NADPH oxidase RBOHC is responsible for producing ROS under low nitrate stress. Mutants lacking RBOHC showed stunted growth, reduced nitrate uptake, and lower expression of key nitrate transporter genes NRT2.1, NRT2.2, and NRT2.4.
Further investigation revealed that RBOHC-generated ROS activate two transcription factors—WRKY42 and WRKY58—which in turn directly bind to the promoters of NRT2 genes to enhance their expression. Genetic experiments confirmed that plants with suppressed WRKY42/WRKY58 activity mimicked the hypersensitivity of rbohc mutants to low nitrate, while overexpressing these transcription factors improved nitrate uptake and plant growth under nitrogen-deficient conditions.
“Our work uncovers a novel layer of regulation in plant nitrogen nutrition,” said the professor Zheng. “By understanding how plants naturally enhance nitrate uptake under stress, we can explore biotechnological approaches to improve nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture, potentially reducing fertilizer dependency.”
By revealing how RBOHC contributes to nitrate starvation responses, this research provides a conceptual framework for engineering nitrogen-efficient crops by modulating components of the ROS-WRKY-NRT2 signaling module.
Journal
Science Bulletin
DOI
The secrets of dynamic changes in residual film and microplastics in cotton fields
Higher Education Press
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view moreCredit: HIGHER EDUCATON PRESS
In the vast cotton fields of Xinjiang, plastic film covering technology has been a weapon for increasing yield—it conserves water, raises temperatures, and improves water utilization efficiency, significantly boosting cotton production in arid regions. However, on the flip side, these non-degradable plastic films accumulate in the soil year after year, and the microplastics formed from their fragmentation are quietly threatening soil health and ecological safety. How does residual plastic film evolve into microplastics under long-term plastic mulching? Is this process linear?
Recently, Associate Professor Can Hu from Tarim University and Researcher Haichun Zhang from the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences provided key answers through a study on cotton fields with 5–30 years of mulching. The article was published in the journal Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Volume 13, Issue 1 (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025627).
The research team conducted experiments in typical arid cotton fields in Aral City, Xinjiang, systematically analyzing the dynamic changes of residual film and microplastics in the soil over different durations. The results showed that as the mulching time increased, the amount of residual film continued to rise: the residual film amount in fields mulched for 5 years was 46 kg·ha–1, which surged to 281 kg·ha–1 after 30 years. Notably, the topsoil (0–10 cm) was the primary accumulation zone, while the amount of residual film in deeper soil (20–30 cm) also began to accelerate after 20 years.
More importantly, the transformation relationship between residual film and microplastics was highlighted. The study found a significant positive correlation between the number of microplastics and the amount of residual film, indicating that residual film is a major source of microplastics. However, this transformation is not entirely linear—when the amount of residual film exceeds 160–200 kg·ha–1, the rate of microplastic generation suddenly accelerates by 85%, akin to pressing an accelerator button. This phenomenon is referred to as the threshold effect, where high residual film amounts trigger more intense fragmentation of plastic and the release of microplastics.
The trend of microplastics becoming finer is also evident. In the topsoil of cotton fields mulched for 5 years, microplastics smaller than 1 mm accounted for only 7.9%, while this proportion rose to 22.6% after 30 years; conversely, the proportion of microplastics larger than 2 mm dropped from 49.2% to 13.8%. This indicates that long-term mulching not only increases the quantity of microplastics but also reduces their size, making them more likely to migrate downward through soil pores and affect deeper soil environments.
Based on 30 years of field trial data, this study systematically quantified the contribution of residual film to microplastic generation. By refining microplastic size classification, it revealed the dynamic distribution of fragments of different sizes over time and soil depth. More importantly, it clarified the critical threshold of 160–200 kg·ha–1—when the amount of residual film exceeds this value, microplastic pollution enters an acceleration phase.
The study emphasizes that timely removal of residual film and preventing its accumulation beyond the threshold of 160–200 kg·ha–1 is key to reducing microplastic pollution. Currently, the issue of residual film pollution in cotton fields has garnered widespread attention, and the results of this research will provide scientific support for formulating more precise residual film recovery strategies and optimizing mulching technology, aiding the sustainable development of agricultural ecosystems in arid regions.
Journal
Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Dynamics of residual film mass and microplastic abundance in long-term plastic-mulched cotton fields
Article Publication Date
15-Feb-2026
Researchers develop new tools to turn grain crops into biosensors
Plant-based detection systems could be used to monitor chemical exposure in agricultural settings
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
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Setaria viridis, a grass species similar to corn and sorghum, engineered to produce a natural purple pigment, anthocyanin, for use as a visual reporter on the presence of chemicals in the environment. Wild-type Setaria viridis is on the left (green plants) and the engineered plants are on the right (purple plants.)
view moreCredit: DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER
ST. LOUIS, MO, January 6, 2026 — A collaborative team of researchers from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the University of Florida, Gainesville and University of Iowa have developed groundbreaking tools that allow grasses—including major grain crops like corn—to act as living biosensors capable of detecting minute amounts of chemicals in the field.
Principal Investigators Dmitri Nusinow, PhD, and Malia Gehan, PhD, led the effort to engineer grasses that produce a visible purple pigment, anthocyanin, in response to specific chemical cues. When paired with advanced imaging and analytical systems, these plants can report extremely low levels of chemical exposure, pollution, or other adverse conditions that may impact crop and human health.
Their findings, Remote Sensing of Endogenous Pigmentation by Inducible Synthetic Circuits in Grasses, were recently published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.
Turning Plants Into “Sentinels”
“What if plants could alert farmers to adverse conditions or unwanted chemicals?” posited the research team. Although researchers have begun exploring plant-based biosensors, most tools have been developed in dicot species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. Grass species—monocots—have lagged behind despite being the foundation of global grain production. Plant pigments, such as carotenoids, betalains and anthocyanins are being adapted as non-invasive visual reporters to monitor gene expression in plants.
Nusinow and Gehan successfully adapted a ligand-inducible genetic circuit that activates the plant’s own anthocyanin pathway in the C4 model grass Setaria viridis. These new tools could be used to trigger grasses like corn to make a purple pigment, anthocyanin, when exposed to specific chemicals.
Key advances include:
Identification of two transcription factors that can be co-expressed from a single transcript to trigger anthocyanin production.
Demonstration of both constitutive and ligand-inducible pigment production in protoplasts and whole plants.
Development of hyperspectral imaging and discriminative analysis techniques that non-destructively detect pigmentation changes from a near-remote distance.
Together, these advancements demonstrate a robust system for precise, remote sensing of chemical exposure in grasses—paving the way for crop plants that can actively communicate environmental conditions.
“Grain crops are at the heart of global food security,” said Nusinow. “Having plants act as sentinels in the field could increase food security and improve the sustainability of agriculture.”
This research represents an important step toward plant-based monitoring systems capable of detecting contamination, chemical drift, or other environmental factors that influence crop performance. As detection tools become more sophisticated, the ability for plants to “report” their own stressors could transform agricultural management and resilience.
Tools Available for Community Use
In support of open science, both the molecular tools to build these sensors for grasses, and the methods for sensitive detection of changes in pigmentation have been deposited into public repositories enabling other scientists to build on this work and accelerate innovation in plant synthetic biology.
“We wanted to build a system that other researchers could easily use. Making our constructs and imaging approaches publicly available will accelerate innovation across the community,” said Gehan.
Collaborators on the project included, Alina Zare, PhD, professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, director, Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Research Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville; and Susan Meerdink, PhD, assistant professor, School for Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, University of Iowa. This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, HR001118C01327.
About the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a nonprofit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. The Center’s research, education and outreach efforts focus on food security and environmental sustainability, positioning the
St. Louis region as a global leader in plant science. The Center is supported by funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Gates Foundation and the generosity of individuals, corporation and foundation donors. For more information, visit danforthcenter.org.
For more information contact:
Karla Roeber, Vice President, Public and Government Affairs, kroeber@danforthcenter.org
