WUSCHEL triggers innate antiviral immunity in plant stem cells

Building a safe space for stem cells The meristem, the collection of stem cells that builds plants, is resistant to viral infection. Wu et al. now show that WUSCHEL, a transcription factor that helps to sustain stem cell production in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis , also protects that stem cell domain from viruses. WUSCHEL inhibited viral protein synthesis by repressing methyltransferases that regulate ribosomal RNA processing and ribosome stability. Science , this issue p. 227