Science · 10 September 2026 · From issue 36
Glycan recognition by a plant damage-sensing immune receptor
A plant protein has a pocket shaped to grab broken bits of chewed-up cell walls.
Pedro Jiménez-Sandoval, Owen Kentish et al.
Germs attack plants by breaking down the tough wall around each cell. Scientists mapped the shape of a plant sensor protein and found it has a pocket built to grab a specific sugar piece. This piece comes from cellulose, the main material in plant walls, and appears when the wall gets damaged. The sensor's shape lets it tell apart tiny differences in these sugar pieces, so it can spot real damage and warn the plant.
Shows the sensor's shape and its grip on a wall-damage sugar piece, not field disease outcomes.
Lab structure study only, no field infection data shown.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 16 September 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (Science). Read the source
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