Worm pheromones trigger plant defenses, study finds

Treatment with an ascaroside protects Arabidopsis plants against infection with turnip crinkle virus. The plants on the left were untreated, while the plants on the right were pretreated with the pheromone. Plants can sense parasitic roundworms in the soil by picking up on their chemical signals, a team of researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI), on the Cornell University campus, has found. When plants detect pheromones given off by nematode worms, they activate their immune system for protection. But the chemical warning not only triggers defenses against nematodes, but also against bacterial, fungal and viral infection. This discovery may yield a nontoxic agricultural treatment against nematodes and other pests. "It's a very significant discovery that plants can perceive chemical signals from an animal - our work provides some of the first evidence for this," said BTI professor Daniel Klessig.