Cytokinin-dependent manipulation of plant metabolism is a strategy employed not only by gallers and leaf-miners but also by a free-living insect, Tupiocoris notatus, which directly transfers cytokinins at feeding sites to manipulate its host plant.

A 2-year field study has demonstrated that volatile compounds produced by plants when they are attacked by herbivores act as defenses by attracting predators to the herbivores and increasing the reproduction of the plants.

Regulation of diterpene glycoside malonylation status influences stylar elongation through affecting auxin signaling in Nicotiana attenuata.

The attempt to manipulate a microbiome in planta to study the ecological consequences under field conditions leaves plants and their microbes surprisingly unimpressed.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals the molecular basis and evolution of herbivore-associated early defense signaling in Nicotiana.

Building on previous work (Kessler et al., 2015), it is shown that long-tongued hawkmoths assess individual flowers by smelling floral odors with olfactory neurons on their proboscises, and that this close-range perception is crucial for successful pollination and foraging.

Variation in the gene NaMPK4 in plant populations increases reproductive yield, an effect which appears to be independent of soil water availability, neighbor-scale interactions and associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Both the frequency of sesquiterpene-emitting individuals and the defense capacity of individual plants determine the consequences of sesquiterpene volatile emission for individuals and their neighbors in populations of the wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-induced hydroxy- and carboxyblumenol C glycosides accumulate in plant shoots and allow for facile high-throughput screening for functional plant-AMF associations.

Floral scent and nectar are highly variable in natural populations and both traits can influence outcrossing rates differently for different pollinators and increase future herbivory.