Plants lack the ability to develop antibodies against a new virus. British researchers present a new concept in this week’s Science: synthetic immune receptors ‘on demand’. This brings the possibility of rapidly developing resistant crops a step closer. 

Unlike humans and animals, plants do not have an adaptive immune system. Instead, they have receptors that act as antibodies, detecting pathogens and triggering an immune response. But these receptors lack the adaptability of antibodies. This makes it difficult for breeders to develop resistance to new pathogens, because they have to rely on what is already present in the plant.

Researchers at Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, are changing that. They do this by giving plants what group leader Sophien Kamoun calls a “pseudoadaptive immune system”. For this resistance gene-on-demand, they have integrated the antigen-binding part of an antibody into a plant receptor. In this way, the plant receptor actually recognizes the antigen and triggers an immune response.