Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Insect and plants have coevolved for millions of years. Plants respond to herbivory through \nvarious morphological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms to counter/offset the effects of \nherbivore attack. These defense strategies against herbivores are wide-ranging, highly dynamic, \nand could be direct and/or indirect. Direct defense affects the herbivore’s growth and \ndevelopment due to antibiosis because of secondary metabolites produced constitutively and/or \ninduced upon infestation by the insect pests. The indirect defense involves the recruitment of \nnatural enemies of the insect pests. The natural enemies (parasitoids and predators) are attracted \nby the volatiles produced by the plants in response to insect herbivory. The direct and indirect \ndefensive strategies either act separately or in conjunction with each other. However, insects \nhave the ability to adapt to the plant defensive responses through physiological processes, \nmetabolism and behavior to offset the adverse effects of the host plants’ defense systems. This \nprocess of defensive responses by the host plants and counter defense by the insect pests results \nin the breakdown of resistance, and evolution of new populations/biotypes of the insect pests. \nThis co-evolution between the plants and insects poses a major threat for developing crop \ncultivars with stable resistance to the target pest for pest management.
Authors: Abdul Rashid War, H. C. Sharma
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W134561987