Defence by diversity

Boosting plant defence by beneficial soil microorganisms

Plants in their environment face potential deleterious organisms such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, etc. Many of them are able to cause plant diseases, responsible of important losses in crop production worldwide. But often the outcome of these interactions is not disease, since plants have developed multiple mechanisms to protect themselves against pathogens attack. Moreover, benefic...

Helminth defence molecules—immunomodulators designed by parasites!

HELMINTH DEFENCE MOLECULES (HDMs)—ANTIMICROBIALS OR IMMUNOMODULATORS? Parasitic helminths (worms) are one of the most successful animal groups in nature. They are large multicellular organisms and therefore cannot penetrate host cells but must reside inside tissue or organs. They infect over 1 billion people globally, mostly in tropical/sub-tropical regions, taking an enormous toll on animal an...

Plant Community Diversity Influences Allocation to Direct Chemical Defence in Plantago lanceolata

BACKGROUND Forecasting the consequences of accelerating rates of changes in biodiversity for ecosystem functioning requires a mechanistic understanding of the relationships between the structure of biological communities and variation in plant functional characteristics. So far, experimental data of how plant species diversity influences the investment of individual plants in direct chemical de...

Medical Defence

Chemical Diversity and Defence Metabolism: How Plants Cope with Pathogens and Ozone Pollution

Chemical defences represent a main trait of the plant innate immune system. Besides regulating the relationship between plants and their ecosystems, phytochemicals are involved both in resistance against pathogens and in tolerance towards abiotic stresses, such as atmospheric pollution. Plant defence metabolites arise from the main secondary metabolic routes, the phenylpropanoid, the isoprenoid...