Modified plants and methods of detecting pathogenic disease

A method of treating pathogen-infected plants, said method comprising the steps of:

• planting a sentry plant in a field, wherein said sentry plant comprises plant cells modified to comprise a cisgenic gene construct, wherein said cisgenic construct comprises
• a coding nucleic acid that is native to said plant cell and codes for a signaling moiety;
• and
• a known stress inducible regulatory element that is native to said plant cell, said regulatory element being operably linked to said coding nucleic acid, wherein
• said signaling moiety produces a signal in the electromagnetic spectrum that can be detected in intact plant tissues expressing the signal moiety, said coding sequence being operably linked to a known stress inducible regulatory element that is native to said plant cell, wherein the native genomic location of either the coding nucleic acid or the stress inducible regulatory element is retained, and said cisgenic gene construct expresses the signaling moiety under the control of said regulatory element, further wherein said regulatory element and coding sequence are not operably linked in unmodified cells of a corresponding native plant cell;
• planting plants lacking said cisgenic construct adjacent to said sentry plant;
• monitoring said field comprising said sentry plant for alteration in color relative to said plants lacking said cisgenic construct;
• applying an anti-pathogen treatment to said field in response to a detected alteration in expression of a detectable marker associated with said signaling moiety in said sentry plants relative to said plants lacking said encoding a signaling moiety construct.