Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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]
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). Plant defense strategies play important roles in the survival of plants as they are fed upon by many different types of herbivores, especially insects, which may impose ...
For example, jasmonic acid can be used to simulate an herbivore attack on plants and thus, induce plant defences. [19] The use of jasmonic acid on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) resulted in plants with fewer but larger fruits, longer ripening time, delayed fruit-set, fewer seeds per plant and fewer seeds per unit of fruit weight. [20]
Studies comparing the relative impacts of mutualistic endophytes on inducible defenses and tolerance show a central function of infection in determining both responses to herbivore damage. [100] On the whole, molecular mechanisms behind endophyte-mediated plant defense has been an increasing focus of research over the past ten years. [101] [102]
A plant defense is a trait that increases plant fitness when faced with herbivory. This is measured relative to another plant that lacks the defensive trait. Plant defenses increase survival and/or reproduction (fitness) of plants under pressure of predation from herbivores. Defense can be divided into two main categories, tolerance and resistance.
Jasmonic acid, a herbivore-induced plant volative, helps to attract natural enemies of plant pests. When an herbivore starts eating a plant, the plant may respond by increasing its production of volatiles or changing its volatile profile. This plasticity is controlled by either the jasmonic acid pathway or the salicylic acid pathway, depending ...
This category includes economically significant plant diseases and the organisms that cause them including, fungi, bacteria, protists and viruses. For more information on plant pathology see phytopathology. For insects that transmit plant pathogens see Insect vectors of plant pathogens.