A new approach to?inoculate plants against viruses can be used as an alternative to toxic pesticides, which is harmful to insects as well as the environment. Scientists from the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg (MLU, Institute of Biochemistry & Biotechnology), the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB, Department of Molecular Signal Processing) and from the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection) presented their discoveries on "Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford Academic" During a virus attack, plants initiate a two-stage molecular defence programme which protects them “both at the site of the infection and throughout its structure”. The programme first triggers plants’ cells to multiply the virus, which creates viral ribonucleic acid molecules (RNAs). Using special enzyme scissors, the plants then detect these molecules and cuts them — a process which produces ‘small interfering RNAs’