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Published online 23 June 2000 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news000629-2
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Know your enemy
Christopher Surridge finds that when it comes to self-defence, plants have more in common with us than we might think.
The mammalian immune system is an amazingly efficient defence mechanism against invasion by pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. It is often held up as one of the pinnacles of evolution, and organisms lacking an immune system are regarded as somehow more primitive than those possessing one.
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