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Tolerance is the ability of plants to mitigate the negative fitness effects caused by herbivory.It is one of the general plant defense strategies against herbivores, the other being resistance, which is the ability of plants to prevent damage (Strauss and Agrawal 1999).
Some herbivores have evolved ways to hijack plant defenses to their own benefit by sequestering these chemicals and using them to protect themselves from predators. [5] Plant defenses against herbivores are generally not complete, so plants tend to evolve some tolerance to herbivory. [16]
Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. [1]
Herbivores' effects on plant diversity vary across environmental changes. Herbivores could increase plant diversity or decrease plant diversity. [1] Loss of plant diversity due to climate change can also affect herbivore and plant community relationships [2] Herbivores are crucial in determining the distribution, abundance, and diversity of plant populations.
For example, jasmonic acid can be used to simulate an herbivore attack on plants and thus, induce plant defences. [19] The use of jasmonic acid on tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum ) resulted in plants with fewer but larger fruits, longer ripening time, delayed fruit-set, fewer seeds per plant and fewer seeds per unit of fruit weight. [ 20 ]
The myriad defenses displayed by plants means that their herbivores need a variety of skills to overcome these defenses and obtain food. These allow herbivores to increase their feeding and use of a host plant. Herbivores have three primary strategies for dealing with plant defenses: choice, herbivore modification, and plant modification.
Jasmonic acid, a herbivore-induced plant volative, helps to attract natural enemies of plant pests. When an herbivore starts eating a plant, the plant may respond by increasing its production of volatiles or changing its volatile profile. This plasticity is controlled by either the jasmonic acid pathway or the salicylic acid pathway, depending ...
Neotyphodium spp. are commonly associated with tall fescue in the leaf sheath tissue. They produce secondary metabolites toxic to herbivores. Plant use of endophytic fungi in defense occurs when endophytic fungi, which live symbiotically with the majority of plants by entering their cells, are utilized as an indirect defense against herbivores.