Wheat can be vulnerable to diseases that may increase as the Earth warms. A team of scientists across five continents may have found a way to help wheat fight back, according to two papers published in the journal Science.

“Climate change is causing diseases to appear in places previously unseen,” Brande Wulff., a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and an author of the study, said in a press release. “We need more study of plant immunity to develop technologies that will protect valuable food crops.”

An Urgent Need to Boost Plant Immunity

Wheat provides food for billions of people as well as the animals they eat. But the grain is susceptible to infectious diseases, just like humans and animals. Stem rust — sometimes called the “polio of wheat” — has historically killed crops and played a role in many famines. Scientists have developed some wheat strains resistant to the disease, but pathogens that affect plants can mutate and evolve.

As in humans, plants use their immune systems to resist infections. To help the plants do so more effectively, scientists first need to understand how the disease takes hold and destroys them.

The new research does just that. It details how the molecular machinery in plant cells responds to stem rust, which is characterized by brown pustules on wheat stems and leaves. The first paper describes how the mechanism works. The second study investigates how that molecular machinery can fight multiple forms of fungus harmful to plants.

Read More: 100-Year-Old Wheat Could Help Feed the World

Discovering a Wheat-Protection Strategy

According to the press release, the team of scientists across five continents led by Wulff, are trying to engineer wheat so that it is immune against infection.

Kinases are the key. These molecules, which are present in many organisms, act as cellular ferries. They transport other helper molecules to the correct part of the cell. Often, once they reach their destination, they trigger a complex sequence of molecular events. Essentially, once the appropriate molecule reaches its destination, it then acts as the finger that knocks over the first domino in an intricate layout.

Understanding How Wheat Reacts

The surprise in this study is that not one, but two kinases handcuffed together are involved in wheat’s immune response to wheat rust. This is the first time such a mechanism has been observed, according to the paper.

When there’s no pathogen present, the two kinases are bound together — thus the handcuffs analogy. This renders them inactive.

But when a pathogen binds to one of the two, it effectively acts as a key, unlocking both kinases. Understanding how this mechanism works may help plant scientists engineers wheat — and perhaps other crops — to deploy this mechanism, perhaps against multiple diseases — not just wheat rust.

“A majority of countries see wheat as critical to their food policy and food security,” said Wulff. “The more we understand how wheat reacts to pathogens the more we can sustainably secure the food supply for the world’s growing population.”

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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.