Related topics: plants

Surplus sugar helps whiteflies detoxify plant defenses

When attacking crucifers, the sap-sucking whitefly Bemisia tabaci can activate the chemical defenses of these plants. In a new study, an international team of researchers demonstrated that the pest is able to render a large ...

Strigolactones increase tolerance to weevils in tobacco plants

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, has discovered that strigolactones, a class of novel plant hormones, mediate the fine-tuning of the production plant defensive substances ...

The balancing act between plant growth and defense

Researchers from Kumamoto University in Japan have pinpointed the mechanism that regulates the balance between plant growth and defense. Plants synthesize and accumulate protective hormones to protect them from pathogen infections, ...

Scientists learn how to increase corn crop yields

NSF-funded scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory are figuring out how to pack more kernels onto a corn cob. One way to boost the productivity of a plant, they say, is to redirect some of its resources away from maintaining ...

Shifting the balance of growth vs. defense boosts crop yield

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists are figuring out how to pack more kernels onto a corn cob. One way to boost the productivity of a plant, they say, is to redirect some of its resources away from maintaining ...

How nematodes outsmart the defenses of pests

The western corn rootworm, one of the world's most damaging maize pests, can use plant defense compounds to defend itself against its own natural enemies, so-called entomopathogenic nematodes. However, the nematodes can become ...

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