When plants come under attack from invading bacteria, viruses or fungi, they mount a two-pronged response, producing both offensive chemicals to kill invaders and defensive chemicals to prevent infestations from spreading.
Plants & Animals
Oct 23, 2019
2
30
Plants may induce "leaky gut syndrome"—permeability of the gut lining—in insects as part of a multipronged strategy for protecting themselves from being eaten, according to researchers at Penn State. By improving our ...
Ecology
Jul 22, 2019
3
212
UMBC's Hua Lu, professor of biological sciences, and colleagues have found new genetic links between a plant's circadian rhythm (essentially, an internal clock) and its ability to fend off diseases and pests. The findings ...
Biotechnology
Jun 12, 2019
0
107
Plants can't run away to avoid being eaten, so instead they employ a variety of chemical defenses to keep herbivores at bay. Understanding plant chemical defenses is critical for keeping crops healthy, and for answering a ...
Biotechnology
Apr 3, 2019
0
6
Environmental activists are teaming up with fresh faces in Congress to advocate for a Green New Deal, a bundle of policies that would fight climate change while creating new jobs and reducing inequality. Not all of the activists ...
Environment
Jan 31, 2019
1
5
Washington State University researchers have discovered the way plants respond to disease-causing organisms, and how they protect themselves, leading the way to potential breakthroughs in breeding resistance to diseases or ...
Biotechnology
Jan 11, 2019
0
279
Michigan State University scholar Andrea Glassmire and her colleagues have revealed how the mixture of chemical weapons deployed by plants keeps marauding insects off base better than a one-note defense. This insight goes ...
Ecology
Dec 13, 2018
0
144
A team of scientists from the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and their partners have characterized multiple functions of benzoxazinoids in wheat: The toxic form of the substances ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 5, 2018
0
60
It is well known that certain wasps suppress the immune systems of their caterpillar hosts so they can successfully raise their young within those hosts. Now researchers at Penn State show that, in addition to suppressing ...
Ecology
May 1, 2018
0
32
In nature, plants engage in a never-ending battle to avoid being eaten. Unable to run away, plant species have evolved defenses to deter herbivores; they have spines, produce nasty chemicals, or grow tough leaves that are ...
Ecology
Aug 21, 2017
0
113
