This led the team to suspect that in the plants fertilized with nitrate, a traffic jam might be occurring in the chloroplasts,
sites inside plant cells where nitrogen is converted to the organic variety.
Goodell and Jellison relate a process that begins with the fungi in the lumen — the hollow space
found inside plant cells.
Using analytical new methods developed by the Freiburg researchers, they were able to show that the XopH protein targets one of the main phosphorus
supplies inside plant cells.
Whereas when an effector is
detected inside the plant cell, the plant knows for sure it is being attacked and it activates ETI, a very strong immune response,» said co-author Greg Martin, the Boyce Schulze Downey Professor at BTI.
Plant defense systems consist of interconnected tiers of receptors, which are found both outside and
inside the plant cells.
Inside plant cells, ABA does its job by turning on a special class of proteins called receptors.