Do plants have an immune system? How does it work?

Question

When you consider that they absorb chemicals through their
roots and all the crud that's in the soil, how is it possible that
they can survive?

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Answer 1

Plants use a variety of means to stay healthy soil,sunlight,good nematodes and a active transport system that's so good it has very little reason to change.I can't remember all the stages of the Krebs cycle but it does the best job at explaining homeostasis in plants.I do know they have what is called undifferentiated cells that come into play and produce the part of the plant/structure as needed.To the best of my knowledge this was call a merriosamatic cell. I do have a degree in Biology but have never applied it toward anything other then my own interest.

Answer 2

They have a systemic response mechanism. In infected areas, programmed cell death occurs to prevent the infecition from spreading. Also, an antibactieral is produced in plants. It is a rough system, much less complex than ours, but it is pretty effective. They don't have antibodies...all they have is programmed cell death and plant antibacterial (to protect uneffected cells)

Tarpenoids and Alkaloids are also utilized by a plant for protection. That is why some plants are poisionous or they taste bad...or they smell bad. It wards off infections, predators, and whatever else may be lerking.

Also, plants only absorb certian things from the soil due to a lot of chemical stuff I won't go into.

The vacuole can also supply pits to the plant, preventing it from being something you might want to eat until a ceritan point is reached. Something you might experience in relation to that is the grittiness in pears...


Hormones are also used, but those mainly regulate plant growth and development. Auxin, gibillarians, ethelyene, tarpoids...all used by the plant to grow...but not to ward off bad infections or anything.

Answer 3

Yes, they do have immune systems. Their systems produce chemical compounds to ward off invading organisms, just like animals.