Following herbivory, plants produce jasmonic acid, a hormone which activates several plant defense reactions. Scientists found that leafhoppers can evaluate whether tobacco plants are ready for defense when attacked. If jasmonate-signaling ...
Biotechnology
May 23, 2012
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In the battle between insect predators and their prey, chemical signals called kairomones serve as an early-warning system. Pervasively emitted by the predators, the compounds are detected by their prey, and can even trigger ...
Ecology
Jul 16, 2010
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Larvae of the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) are dreaded pests all over the world. They have a very wide host range: About 200 different plant species are known as potential food for the voracious insect. The herbivore ...
Biotechnology
Sep 12, 2012
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The western corn rootworm continues to be on the rise in Europe. Why attempts to biologically target this crop pest by applying entomopathogenic nematodes have failed, can now be explained by the amazing defense strategy ...
Ecology
Nov 27, 2017
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To solve the acute, global problem of securing food resources for a continuously growing population, we must work constantly to increase the sustainability and effectiveness of modern agricultural techniques. These efforts ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 16, 2012
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At Tal Chhapar, a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the Thar desert, a strange drama is staged twice every year. In the blistering heat of summer from March to April and the post-monsoon months of September and October, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 2, 2018
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Plants are chatty creatures. In the last decade, researchers have shown plants communicate using underground fungal networks to exchange chemical information. However, exactly how that process works at the microscopic level ...
General Physics
May 7, 2019
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Water fleas of the genus daphnia detect via chemical substances if their predators, namely Chaoborus larvae, are hunting in their vicinity. If so, they generate defences that make them more difficult to consume. The signalling ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 27, 2018
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Sugars are usually known as energy storage units in plants and the insects that feed on them. But, sugars may also be part of a deadly game of tag between plant and insect according to scientists at the Max Planck Institute ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2014
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Max Planck scientists in Jena, Germany, have discovered an unusual regulation of enzymes that catalyze chain elongation in an important secondary metabolism, the terpenoid pathway. In the horseradish leaf beetle Phaedon cochleariae ...
Biochemistry
Feb 28, 2013
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