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Plants also have immune systems, just like animals. They use special receptors to spot harmful bacteria and defend themselves. One key receptor, called FLS2, helps plants detect flagellin, a protein in the tails that bacteria use to move.
But bacteria are clever. They continually modify the protein to evade the plant’s defenses.
To help plants fight back, scientists at UC Davis used artificial intelligence, specifically AlphaFold, a tool that predicts protein shapes. With it, they redesigned FLS2 to recognize more variations of flagellin, thereby strengthening the plant’s immune system and making it harder for bacteria to trick it.
The researchers studied plant receptors that could detect a wide range of bacteria, even if those receptors came from non-crop plants. By comparing these with less effective receptors, they determined which amino acids needed to be modified.
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