May 04, 2017 Abstract Plant-insect interaction system has been a widely studied model of the ecosystem. Attempts have long been made to understand the numerical behaviour of this counter system and make improvements in it from initial simple analogy based approach with predator-prey model to the recently developed mathematical interpretation of plant-insect interaction including concept of plan...

The study of plant–insect interactions continues to be an exciting and fast-moving field that builds upon the more extensive literature available in plant–microbe interactions and offers new and significant insights into both the unique molecular determinants of plant–insect interactions and the wider ecological context. This special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany brings together a...

The majority of described plant viruses are transmitted by insects of the Hemipteroid assemblage that includes aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, planthoppers, and thrips. In this review we highlight progress made in research on vector interactions of the more than 200 plant viruses that are transmitted by hemipteroid insects beginning a few hours or days after acquisition and for up to the life ...

The effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on plant-fungi and plant-insect interactions were studied in an emergent marsh in the Chesapeake Bay. Stands of the C3 sedge Scirpus olneyi Grey. and the C4 grass Spartina patens (Ait.) Mobl. have been exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations during each growing season since 1987. In August 1991 the severities of fungal infections ...

Optical projection tomography (OPT) is a well-established method for visualising gene activity in plants and animals. However, a limitation of conventional OPT is that the specimen upper size limit precludes its application to larger structures. To address this problem we constructed a macro version called Macro OPT (M-OPT). We apply M-OPT to 3D live imaging of gene activity in growing whole pl...

Disturbance can directly affect the interactions among species at different trophic levels. Because disturbances are typically localized, and many consumers are constrained in their mobility, disturbances can generate spatial variability in trophic interactions. Here, we consider how fire alters plant–insect interactions in a longleaf pine ecosystem in central Florida, USA. We hypothesized that...

Insect herbivores are considered vulnerable to extinctions of their plant hosts. Previous studies of insect-damaged fossil leaves in the US Western Interior showed major plant and insect herbivore extinction at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-T) boundary. Further, the regional plant-insect system remained depressed or ecologically unbalanced throughout the Palaeocene. Whereas Cretaceous floras had...

Classic research on elevational gradients in plant–herbivore interactions holds that insect herbivore pressure is stronger under warmer, less seasonal climates characteristic of low elevations, and that this in turn selects for increased defence in low(relative to high-) elevation plants. However, recent work has questioned this paradigm, arguing that it overly simplifies the ecological complex...