Recent research has led to new insights into the importance of spatial aspects of jasmonate-mediated plant defense and fungal resistance, including organ-specific resistance as a gate-keeper for plant survival. Spatially defined changes in metabolome, proteome and transcriptome profiles, as well as in situ metabolomics will provide spatial resolution to active plant defense responses, providing insight into the differential resistance of plant organs. Complementary and concurrent high resolution and quantitative imaging will enhance spatial resolution of cellular responses, including monitoring organelle dynamics. The high throughput global and in situ analysis capabilities and imaging expertise of EMSL are critical for completion of this work. The diverse genetic resources available for Arabidopsis will facilitate the future verification of functional relevance of the systems wider component profiles, together providing new insights into fundamental understandings of how plants evolved to survive biotic environmental stress. Successful plant survival in the presence of biotic stress, such as fungal infection, is essential for the BER mission because of the central role plants play in both carbon and water cycling and because plants are rich sources for new bio-based fuels and products. Finally, the focus on peroxisome dynamics fits well within the EMSL science theme of seeking to pioneer discoveries in spatial and functional characteristics of eukaryotic organelles.