Plants Fighting Viruses

By: Cameron O'Neill
               On February 11, 2016 ScienceDaily posted an article with information found at Indiana University. The main point of the subject was “Scientists have modified a plant gene that normally fights bacterial infection to confer resistance to a virus. The method is the first time a plant's innate defense system has been altered to deliver resistance to a new disease.”

Image Credts

               This was a study that had been going "The results are the outcome of nearly 20 years of investigation into plant immunity by Innes". Indiana was able to be the first to confer that the modified plant was able to fight bacterial infections by using jellyfish proteins that make the plant glow under UV light. The light shows in the image above that when it is blue, that means that it was unable to fight off the virus. While the plant to the right is glowing a deep purple, this shows that they were successful in fighting the bacteria and proves that the chlorophyll is still within the plant.

               This can be important in our everyday science in things such as plant production. For example, if there is a plant that is widely distributed in an area, there may be a way to protect it from a spreading disease. This chemical process can be changed somewhat simply to also be used in things like the way we process food and grow crops. Altering ways for these plants to fight for themselves may be a safer way for us to establish food sources found in our everyday agricultural survival. This can be explained with this quote: “Scientists have modified a plant gene that normally fights bacterial infection to confer resistance to a virus. The method is the first time a plant's innate defense system has been altered to deliver resistance to a new disease.” So basically this is important in our growing nd selling of product such as food and floral arrangement used everyday.

Citations:

Indiana University. "By switching 'bait,' biologists trick plants' bacterial defense into attacking virus: Single, minor gene alteration method could confer new disease resistance traits to crops."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 February 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160211184007.htm>.