When a maize plant is attacked by the fungus Ustilago maydis, tumor-like tissue growths occur at the site of infection. How the pathogen causes this response in its host has long been unknown. But a ...

For decades, this question has bewildered biologists. Now, by studying Placozoa, scientists at Stanford University have ...

Plants mobilize their immune defenses far earlier than scientists have believed for decades—and through a previously overlooked early signaling mechanism—according to a new study published in Nature ...