Skip to main content
Ingenium Logo

You are leaving IngeniumCanada.org

✖


This link leads to an external website that Ingenium does not control. Please read the third-party’s privacy policies before entering personal information or conducting a transaction on their site.

Have questions? Review our Privacy Statement

Vous quittez IngeniumCanada.org

✖


Ce lien mène à un site Web externe qu'Ingenium ne contrôle pas. Veuillez lire les politiques de confidentialité des tiers avant de partager des renseignements personnels ou d'effectuer une transaction sur leur site.

Questions? Consultez notre Énoncé de confidentialité

Ingenium The Channel

Langue

  • Français
Search Toggle

Menu des liens rapides

  • Ingenium Locations
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Join
Menu

Main Navigation

  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners

Flipping the switch

This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.

Share
Jan 24, 2017
Categories
Agriculture
Categories
Earth & Environment
Media
Article
Profile picture for user Queen's University
By: Queen's University
Researchers at the Sainsbury Laboratory

Researchers at the Sainsbury Laboratory, including Canadian biologist Jacqueline Monaghan, have uncovered a previously unknown means by which plants are able to regulate how their immune systems respond to pathogens. A group of small peptides, referred to as RALFs (Rapid ALkalinization Factors), serve to dampen immune signaling – preventing further response once the infection has been dealt with by the plant’s immune system. The finding could pave the way to improve the immune systems of food crops, which would have a tremendous impact on food security.

Dr. Monaghan, now a professor of biology at Queen’s University, explains how the team examined how plant immune systems work to respond to threats, as well as how plants regulate their pathogen responses in order to avoid negative impacts to their growth and development.

“Most people are familiar with their own immune system and how it functions, but we don’t often consider immune systems in other organisms,” explains Dr. Monaghan, who took part in the study while a postdoctoral researcher at the Sainsbury Laboratory. “Immune responses need to be ‘turned off’ once the threat is eliminated – otherwise, there can be negative effects on the organism. In humans, this can result in autoimmune disorders. In plants, we see stunted growth and other detrimental effects.”

Dr. Monaghan and her colleagues measured this response by first tracking the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) – chemically reactive compounds – produced in plants exposed to molecules known to elicit an immune response. The plants were also infected with various pathogens and the immune response was tracked. Genetic tests allowed the researchers to identify a number of genes that are important for these immune responses. The results of the study expand the understanding of how plants are able to fight off diseases – possibly serving as a stepping-stone to future research that could improve immune response and food crop yields.

Dr. Monaghan says that this research plays a role in furthering the collective understanding of how plants respond to environmental threats and pathogens. She says that future developments could lead to improving the immune systems of food crops, which would have a tremendous impact on food security.

“Studies such as ours, which aim to understand the fine details of plant immunity, make incremental progress towards that capability,” she explains. “If you increase immunity broadly in crops, you’ll have a decrease in yield – the plants may be stunted because they’re constantly prepared to fight infection, rather than growing. We need to understand that balance so that we can improve the immune response in crops, without those detrimental effects. Knowing how to ‘flip that switch’ is key.”

The full study, titled The receptor kinase FER is a RALF-regulated scaffold controlling plant immune signaling, was published in the journal Science.

Tags
Innovation Storybook
Author(s)
Profile picture for user Queen's University
Queen's University
Follow

We push the limits of what can be achieved and develop ideas that can make a difference in the world.

For more than 175 years, our community has been more than a collection of bright minds – Queen’s has attracted people with an ambitious spirit. We imagine what the future can be, and work together to realize it.

https://www.queensu.ca/

Related Stories

A map of the cranberry bog of Les Producteurs de Québec Limitée of Lemieux, Québec. Luc Bureau, “Un exemple d’adaptation de l’agriculture à des conditions écologiques en apparence hostiles: L’Atocatière de Lemieux,” Cahiers de géographie du Québec, December 1970, 389.

“A sea serpent without affidavit, is like roast turkey without cranberry sauce;” Or, how the Larocque family created the first cranberry bog in Québec, part 3

Two images spliced: On the left, different plant-based milk alternatives, on the right, an overhead view of the Spirit rover.

2 things - and more! - you should know about plant-based milk alternatives and weather on Mars

Some of the buildings on the cranberry bog operated by Les Producteurs de Québec Limitée of Lemieux, Québec. Pierre-Arthur Dorion. “La plus importante plantation d’atocas au pays.” Le Bulletin des agriculteurs, July 1955, 11.

“A sea serpent without affidavit, is like roast turkey without cranberry sauce;” Or, how the Larocque family created the first cranberry bog in Québec, part 2

Charles Larocque, manager of Les Producteurs de Québec Limitée of Lemieux, Québec, showing how to pick up cranberries, on the left, as well as fallen fruits floating in water. Arthur Prévost, « À Lemieux, au Québec, prospère la culture des ‘juteux atacas.’ » Photo-Journal, 23 July 1953, 33.

“A sea serpent without affidavit, is like roast turkey without cranberry sauce;” Or, how the Larocque family created the first cranberry bog in Québec, part 1

Left to right: solar panels placed high above low-lying green farm crops in a field; bubbles of various sizes rising in a yellow-green medium; and two tarantula feet magnified 40 times appear orange in colour against a navy-blue background.

3 Things you should know about using the same farmland for producing crops AND solar energy, museum conservators’ superhuman “vision,” and making french fries in space

Two images, spliced. On the left: Aerial photograph of two rows of six large circular nets floating on water and attached by ropes to a boat. On the right: The rings of Saturn slice horizontally, almost edge-on, through the middle of the image. A variety of Saturnian moons of varying apparent sizes are in the image ranging from very small, background moons to larger and closer moons.

2 Things you should know about an integrated aquaculture system and discovering more of Saturn's moons

Spliced image, from left to right: a seismometer on mars, a heap of red rhubarb stalks with green leaves, a copper roof of the Canaian Parliament

3 Things you should know about marsquakes, the value of urine, and the chemistry of rhubarb

A dirty glass slide of a stromatolite with a dirty cotton swab at the bottom; a close-up on a bee with a green head and thorax on a yellow flower; a false colour 3D view of the surface of Venus showing volcanoes and lava flowing towards the foreground.

3 Things you should know about how native bees are important pollinators, how saliva is used to clean artifacts, and active volcanism on Venus

Ahh, ice cream, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems. I do wonder if this young boy knew he was actually eating mellorine. Anon., “De la crème glacée synthétique.” Photo-Journal, 16 April 1953, 3.

Do they or do they not buy some? Only their grocer knows for sure: A brief look at a lower-cost imitation of ice cream sometimes known as mellorine

A spliced photo, from left to right: Shaun the Sheep in front of a model of ESA’s European Service Module, a top view into a red bucket containing thousands of light-brown, rod-shaped pellets, and a toddler wearing a wool hat and wool sweater holds a grownup’s finger.

3 things you should know about why wool keeps us warm, and about its surprising uses in the garden and in space.

A large impact crater viewed from the rim, a woodern spoon full of small yellow grains, a close up of a forearm being tattooed.

3 things you should know about the untapped potential of millet, the permanence of tattoos, and asteroid airbursts

A promoter of Sure Food, the food chemist James Pearson (right), at the facility of Wentworth Canning Company Limited of Hamilton, Ontario. Anon., “La viande, synthétique, produit canadien, pourrait sauver de la famine les peuples affamés d’Europe.” Photo-Journal, 5 February 1948, 3.

“It smells like meat. It even looks like meat.” The long forgotten tale of a synthetic meat / meat substitute / meat analogue / meat alternative / imitation meat sometimes called Sure Food

Footer

About The Channel

The Channel

Contact Us

Ingenium
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa ON K1G 5A3
Canada

613-991-3044
1-866-442-4416
contact@IngeniumCanada.org
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Channel

    • Channel Home
    • About the Channel
    • Content Partners
  • Visit

    • Online Resources for Science at Home
    • Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
    • Canada Aviation and Space Museum
    • Canada Science and Technology Museum
    • Ingenium Centre
  • Ingenium

    • Ingenium Home
    • About Ingenium
    • The Foundation
  • For Media

    • Newsroom
    • Awards

Connect with us

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest Ingenium news straight to your inbox!

Sign Up

Legal Bits

Ingenium Privacy Statement

© 2023 Ingenium

Symbol of the Government of Canada
  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners