I believe the paper is popular because it combines exciting biological findings in the area of plant-microbe interactions with the establishment of a technique to study protein-protein interactions in the living cells of intact plant tissue. Thus, the paper appears to appeal to scientists interested in these biological results as well as to those fascinated by the methodological aspects.

“The paper describes novel biological findings as well as a new application for an up-to-date microscopic technique to study protein-protein interactions.”

The paper describes novel biological findings as well as a new application for an up-to-date microscopic technique to study protein-protein interactions.

Using a microscopic technique which exploits a biophysical phenomenon termed "fluorescence resonance energy transfer" (FRET), our experiments visualize the interaction between two proteins implicated in antimicrobial defense in living plant cells.

In the course of these studies, we also found that a subset of plant proteins which reside in the periphery (plasma membrane) of plant cells become focally concentrated at sites where a pathogen (the powdery mildew fungus) attempts to enter a cell.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the aggregation of plasma membrane entities termed "lipid rafts" which have been extensively studied in animal cells but, at the time, were largely unknown in plant cells.

We looked for a technique to study protein-protein interactions in living plant cells in a non-invasive manner. We rapidly realized that FRET would be useful to answer our biological questions. However, at the time, FRET was not well-established in plant cells and we had to do some pioneering work.

Despite the difficulties potentially associated with FRET studies in plant cells (e.g., chlorophyll autofluorescence, presence of a cell wall), we made swift progress and were able to set up the technique and to visualize FRET in the cells of intact plant tissue.

As a more or less incidental "by-product" of the protein-protein interaction studies, we made the significant observation that a subset of plant membrane proteins becomes concentrated at the attempted pathogen entry sites.

An understanding of the fundamental biological processes underlying plant diseases and plant defenses against microbial pathogens will, in the long term, help to defeat such pests more efficiently.