Plant defenses: Maize knows how to identify its target
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 08:30
in Biology & Nature
Insect or microbe: plants recognize their attackers and respond by producing specific internal signals that induce the appropriate chemical defenses. That is the main conclusion of a study at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology operated at Gainesville, Florida (USA)* by USDA's Agricultural Research Service, to which the team around Prof. Ted Turlings of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, has contributed. The study is published today in the prestigious journal PNAS.