Given the sheer number of potential enemies, plants are resistant to most pests, even if they can cause damage to other plants. In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology describe a newly discovered mechanism that protects a wild tobacco species from plant sap-sucking leafhoppers. By combining different genetic screening methods with the study of chemical changes in tobacco leaves, they identified a previously unknown defense substance important for the tobacco’s resistance to leafhoppers and characterized the genes for its biosynthesis.
Click here for original story, Scientists decode chemical defense in plants against plant sap-sucking leafhoppers
Source: Phys.org