Plant traits that predict resistance to herbivores

Plant traits that predict resistance to herbivores

Diego Carmona*, Marc J. Lajeunesse and Marc T.J. Johnson Departamento de Ecologı́a Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecologı́a, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ap. Postal 70-275. CP 04510. México Distrito Federal, México; National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, 2024 W. Main St. A200, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA; and Department of Plant Biology, North Carolina State University, Box 7612, Rale...

Plant traits and plant biogeography control the biotic resistance provided by generalist herbivores

How Should Plant Resistance to Herbivores Be Measured?

Plant resistance is normally defined as the heritable ability of plants to escape attacking enemies, partially or fully, thus minimizing the amount of damage experienced by the plant (Painter, 1951; Mitchell et al., 2016). Plant resistance is pivotal in preventing crop yield loss to herbivores, and, thus, it is important to breed for (Hill et al., 2012). As many national and intergovernmental b...

Host resistance selects for traits unrelated to resistance-breaking that affect fitness in a plant virus.

The acquisition by parasites of the capacity to infect resistant host genotypes, that is, resistance-breaking, is predicted to be hindered by across-host fitness trade-offs. All analyses of costs of resistance-breaking in plant viruses have focused on within-host multiplication without considering other fitness components, which may limit understanding of virus evolution. We have reported that ...

Vascular architecture and patchy nutrient availability generate within-plant heterogeneity in plant traits important to herbivores.

Within-plant heterogeneity in growth, morphology, and chemistry is ubiquitous, and is commonly attributed to differences in tissue age, light availability, or previous damage by herbivores. Although these factors are important, we argue that plant vascular architecture is an underappreciated determinant of heterogeneity. Vascular architecture can restrict the transport of resources (nutrients, ...