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Plant defense against herbivory or host-plant resistance is a range of adaptations evolved by plants which improve their survival and reproduction by reducing the impact of herbivores. Many plants produce secondary metabolites , known as allelochemicals , that influence the behavior, growth, or survival of herbivores.
Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. [1] Plants ...
Some chemical defenses once thought to be produced by the plant have since been shown to be synthesized by endophytic fungi. The chemical basis of insect resistance in endophyte-plant defense mutualisms has been most extensively studied in the perennial ryegrass and three major classes of secondary metabolites are found: indole diterpenes, ergot alkaloids and peramine.
Tolerance is the ability of plants to mitigate the negative fitness effects caused by herbivory.It is one of the general plant defense strategies against herbivores, the other being resistance, which is the ability of plants to prevent damage (Strauss and Agrawal 1999).
Tritrophic interactions in plant defense against herbivory describe the ecological impacts of three trophic levels on each other: the plant, the herbivore, and its natural enemies. They may also be called multitrophic interactions when further trophic levels , such as soil microbes, endophytes , or hyperparasitoids (higher-order predators) are ...
Plants have evolved many defense mechanisms against insect herbivory in the 350 million years in which they have co-evolved.Such defenses can be broadly classified into two categories: (1) permanent, constitutive defenses, and (2) temporary, inducible defenses. [1]
It is a derivative of the most rich fatty acid in the lipids of leaf membranes, alpha-linolenic acid. When plants experience mechanical wounding or herbivory, JA is synthesized de novo and induces genome-wide changes in gene expression. [5] JA travels through plants via the phloem, and accumulates in vascular tissue. [6]
Defense trade-offs can be used to change plant phenotype based on environmental challenges (such as herbivory). [16] Even in the absence of defensive trade-offs, herbivores may still be able to increase plant diversity, such as herbivores prefer subordinate species rather than dominant species.