Surprisingly, life history, soil nutrients, and range size were not key determinants.
Tag - plant defence
Erin Zimmerman
Disentangling domestication and environmental effects on plant-herbivore interactions
How has domestication affected herbivory and anti-herbivore defenses of chaya, a plant crop grown for it's leaves in the Yucatan pensula?
William Salter
Resistance to the herbicide 2,4-D is complex in wild radish
Resistance to 2,4-D in wild radish is complex and appears to vary in its mechanism from one population to the next, but new research suggests that lower receptivity at the plasma membrane is part of the answer.
StomaToy — Learning Plant Defence Through Play
Stomata are necessary for photosynthesis, but they're also access points for pathogens. How do plants defend them?
Rucha Karnik
The shape of leaves may be a defence against weevil attack
It's not just taste and texture. One weevil may be using origami to find the best home for its offspring.
Alun Salt
Trees fight infections by building barricades, but how?
Trees fight infections by trapping pathogens in one part of the tree. Hugh Morris and colleagues have been reviewing how trees use secondary metabolites in order to control the process.
Drying out defenses: drought reduces tree defense system
Drought stress is becoming increasingly common with climate change, with negative impacts on tree growth and survival. The mechanisms of drought mortality in trees are often attributed to carbon starvation or hydraulic...
Joseph Stinziano
Larger apples have lower natural defences against pests
Botanists find a clear trade-off between fruit size and phytochemical production, helping to explain why our modern varieties are highly susceptible to diseases and pests.
Alex Assiry
Snails use smell to select seedlings of favoured grassland species
Although Darwin recognised long ago the destructive impact that snails and slugs have on seedlings, we understand remarkably little about why these herbivores select different plants at their most vulnerable stage...
Synthetic auxin resistance in wild radish is still an enigma
Guest author Danica Goggin finds wild radish is a problem weed in many agricultural regions. It is also very good at concealing its herbicide resistance strategies from inquisitive researchers. But with the introduction...
Guest Author
Contrasting effects of yeast and bacteria on floral nectar traits
Guests in flowers can make a location more attractive - or can put off pollinators from visiting.
botanyone
The role of herbivory in the selection of floral traits
Pollinators are often given precedence as the primary drivers behind the evolution of floral traits. Yet a growing body of research is beginning to stress the importance of other significant selective agents...
Relative fructose content and tomato susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea
Plant defence against Botrytis cinerea, a ubiquitous pathogenic fungus, is known to depend upon the mobilisation of sugars which provide energy and carbon skeletons for the production of antifungal compounds. Lecompte...
Sequence polymorphisms in a phytoplasma underlie organ proliferation in maize
Maize bushy stunt phytoplasma (MBSP) is a vector-borne pathogen that induces multiple morphological alterations in maize plants. Orlovskis et al. find that MBSP isolates from two maize growing regions of Southeast...
