Two genes, one switch: a bidirectional promoter strategy for inducible plant immunity

Plant diseases remain a major threat to food security, reducing crop yield worldwide. A central challenge in crop protection is that effective immunity often comes at a cost. Plants must continuously balance growth with defense, and this balance complicates molecular breeding strategies aimed at improving disease resistance. When immune pathways are constitutively activated, plants are often better protected against pathogens, but the price for this protection is reduced growth or fitness. This defense-growth trade-off has therefore become a major obstacle to engineering disease resistance in crops.