Toxic plants with sequestering specialists are presented with a problem because plant derived toxins protect herbivores against natural enemies. It has been suggested that early induction of toxins and later relaxation of these defenses may help the plant resolve this problem because neonate caterpillars incur the physiological cost of dealing with toxins in early life, but are denied toxins wh...

Alternaria is an important fungus to study due to their different life style from saprophytes to endophytes and a very successful fungal pathogen that causes diseases to a number of economically important crops. Alternaria species have been well-characterized for the production of different host-specific toxins (HSTs) and non-host specific toxins (nHSTs) which depend upon their physiological an...

Snake venoms are complex toxin mixtures. Viperidae and Crotalidae venoms, which are hemotoxic, are responsible for most of the envenomations around the world. Administration of antivenins aimed at the neutralization of toxins in humans is prone to potential risks. Neutralization of snake venom toxins has been achieved through different approaches: plant extracts have been utilized in etnomedici...

Beetles are fascinating to evolutionary biologists because there are so many species that often occupy very specific niches. Many organisms produce toxins in their body to deter predators and mostly they are made from scratch using basic ingredients, but some species sequester toxins from their food, notably amongst the insects. But the Platyphora are distinctive in that every species in this v...

abrin known as ribosome inactivating protein’s (rip) it is a high cytotoxic plant protein. high lethality and low cost and easy access to plant and seeds lead to this toxin used in crimes and terrorist acts. because obtaining purified toxins requires advanced laboratory equipment and complex procedures, so, it appears that the perpetrators of such crimes use crude extracts. as a result, remaini...

The sap sucking insects (Hemiptera), which include aphids, whiteflies, plant bugs and stink bugs, have emerged as major agricultural pests. The Hemiptera cause direct damage by feeding on crops, and in some cases indirect damage by transmission of plant viruses. Current management relies almost exclusively on application of classical chemical insecticides. While the development of transgenic cr...