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Perceiving predators: Understanding how plants 'sense' herbivore attack

How 'elicitors' can initiate defense responses in plants against herbivores, and can potentially lead to development of pesticide-free agriculture

Perceiving predators: Understanding how plants 'sense' herbivore attack
2021-02-16
(Press-News.org) Nature has its way of maintaining balance. This statement rightly holds true for plants that are eaten by herbivores--insects or even mammals. Interestingly, these plants do not just silently allow themselves to be consumed and destroyed; in fact, they have evolved a defense system to warn them of predator attacks and potentially even ward them off. The defense systems arise as a result of inner and outer cellular signaling in the plants, as well as ecological cues. Plants have developed several ways of sensing damage; a lot of these involve the sensing of various "elicitor" molecules produced by either the predator or the plants themselves and initiation of an "SOS signal" of sorts.

In a recently END

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Perceiving predators: Understanding how plants 'sense' herbivore attack

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[Press-News.org] Perceiving predators: Understanding how plants 'sense' herbivore attack
How 'elicitors' can initiate defense responses in plants against herbivores, and can potentially lead to development of pesticide-free agriculture