Interactive model of a young paperbark leaf responding to myrtle rust over fourteen days, comparing a resistant and a susceptible genotype

A resistant paperbark beats myrtle rust by killing its own cells

Myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) reached Australia in 2010 and attacks the soft new leaves of broad-leaved paperbark, Melaleuca quinquenervia. A susceptible tree grows yellow spore pustules within about a fortnight; a resistant tree carries receptors that trigger a ring of deliberate cell death around each spore that breaks in. Advance the days after the spores land and watch where the dead cells appear, then switch genotype and watch what the same spores do in a susceptible leaf.