美国印第安纳州的珀德大学植物系科学家拉尔夫·尼科尔森和贝思·斯爱德尔,发现高粱自身产生抗性、防御真菌病害的机理。炭疽病是高粱的重要病害,当病原孢子落到高粱叶片和侵入叶片时,有抗性的植株叶片通过一种化学刺激物的刺激而产生一种毒物,这种毒物能杀死病原真菌。这种毒物就在病原孢子接触高粱叶片的1个或2个细胞内产生,并保存在微小的水泡内。这种水泡通过叶片移动到病原孢子的接触点, Ralf Nicholson and Beth Edell, plant scientists at the University of Padden, Indiana, USA, discovered the mechanism by which sorghum produces its own resistance to fungal diseases. Anthracnose is an important disease in sorghum. When pathogenic spores fall on sorghum leaves and invade the leaves, resistant plant leaves produce a poison stimulated by a chemical stimulus that kills pathogenic fungi. This poison is produced in one or two cells of the pathogen spores in contact with sorghum leaves and is stored in tiny blisters. This blister moves through the leaves to the contact point of pathogenic spores,