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Chloroplasts are a surprisingly active part of plant immune systems

Alessandra Kelley

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-light-farming-chloroplasts-morph-defensive-warriors

So apparently chloroplasts are not just passive photosynthesis machines inside plant cells.

Apparently they can also be active little buggers which move around the cell and surround and attack infections like nobody’s business.

Invasion triggered a cascade of molecular signals that prompted CHUP1 to mobilize chloroplasts. The chloroplasts grew tentacle-like projections called stromules that occasionally linked to other chloroplasts, possibly to transfer information to one another. CHUP1 then directed these chloroplast clusters to the infection site. There, the chloroplast army clasped the microbe’s invading fingerlike appendages, called haustoria, and released toxic photosynthesis by-products. Chloroplasts even seemed to squeeze until haustoria collapsed, helping to counteract the infection.

Bozkurt says he was shocked by how dynamic the chloroplasts’ reaction was. “They look as if they’re going back to their ancestral origins when they were free-living microbes,” Bozkurt says