Scientists at the Washington State University led by Professor Clarence A. Ryan isolated a small protein called Pep1 from Arabidopsis thaliana. Pep1 appears to act like a hormone, expressed at the first sign of infection or wounding. transgenic plants designed to constitutively over-express Pep1 were found to be more resistant toward the oomycete root pathogen Pythium irregulare than wild-type plants.

These findings will be presented today at the American Society of Plant Biology meeting at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, WA. Read the abstract here.

Since orthologs of the proAtPep1 gene have been identified in other important crop species such as canola, soybean, potato, tomato, rice and poplar, this could potentially be a novel method of boosting plant resistance and increasing crop yield. Are any of the agricultural biotech giants listening?