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.
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.
A gain-of-function in a new chemical defense resulted in no trade-offs and and independent evolution between novel and ancestral defenses, suggesting low redundancy among different defensive chemicals.
A chewing herbivore induced WRKY transcription factor induces jasmonate-dependent defences and supresses gibbererellin-dependent growth, the latter of which renders rice plants more susceptible to secondary infestation by a piercing-sucking herbivore.
An atypical subtilase protein, resulting from an alternative splicing event, mediates retention of the defence related-transcription factor MYB30 at endosomal vesicles, thus repressing Arabidopsis antibacterial immunity.
Uncovering an link between plant defense signaling and vertebrate feeding behavior suggests that large browsers may exert strong selection pressure on jasmonate-dependent secondary metabolites.