Insect eggs can enhance wound response in plants: a study system of tomato Solanum lycopersicum L. and Helicoverpa zea Boddie.

ABSTRACT: Insect oviposition on plants frequently precedes herbivory. Accumulating evidence indicates that plants recognize insect oviposition and elicit direct or indirect defenses to reduce the pressure of future herbivory. Most of the oviposition-triggered plant defenses described thus far remove eggs or keep them away from the host plant or their desirable feeding sites. Here, we report induction of antiherbivore defense by insect oviposition which targets newly hatched larvae, not the eggs, in the system of tomato Solanum lycopersicum L., and tomato fruitworm moth Helicoverpa zea Boddie. When tomato plants were oviposited by H. zea moths, pin2, a highly inducible gene encoding protease inhibitor2, which is a representative defense protein against herbivorous arthropods, was expressed at signifi

SUBMITTER: Kim J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3352884 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature