Arabidopsis thaliana- The Model Plant to Study Host-Pathogen Interactions

In the last twenty years, the use of Arabidopsis as a model plant sped up discoveries at the molecular levels in different plant-parasite interactions. Nowadays, we know of probably hundreds of genes that are involved in the one or the other defence reaction, offering hundreds of targets for drug development. Even more interesting, identifying crucial regulatory components might allow to influence the various defence pathways as needed. Moreover, since some pathogenic strategies are conserved between animal and plant pathogens, results obtained with one system might be applicable to the other.