Plants have evolved complex biochemical mechanisms to counter threats from insect herbivory. Recent research has revealed an important role of roots in plant responses to above ground herbivory (AGH). The involvement of roots is integral to plant resistance and tolerance mechanisms. Roots not only play an active role in plant defenses by acting as sites for biosynthesis of various toxins and bu...

Most flowering plants establish mutualistic associations with insect pollinators to facilitate sexual reproduction. However, the evolutionary processes that gave rise to these associations remain poorly understood. We reconstructed the times of divergence, diversification patterns, and interaction networks of a diverse group of specialized orchids and their bee pollinators. In contrast to a sce...

In this review, plant-insect interaction is discussed as a dynamic system, subjected to continual variation and change. Plants developed different mechanisms to reduce insect attack, including specific responses that activate different metabolic pathways which considerably alter their chemical and physical aspects. On the other hand, insects developed several strategies to overcome plant defens...

Insect kinin neuropeptides share a common C-terminal pentapeptide sequence Phe1-Xaa1(2)-Xaa2(3)-Trp4-Gly5-NH2 (Xaa1(2) = His, Asn, Phe, Ser or Tyr; Xaa2(3) = Pro, Ser or Ala) and have been isolated from a number of insects, including species of Dictyoptera, Orthoptera and Lepidoptera. They have been associated with the regulation of such diverse processes as hindgut contraction, diuresis and th...

Metarhizium robertsii is a common soil fungus that occupies a specialized ecological niche as an endophyte and an insect pathogen. Previously, we showed that the endophytic capability and insect pathogenicity of Metarhizium are coupled to provide an active method of insect-derived nitrogen transfer to a host plant via fungal mycelia. We speculated that in exchange for this insect-derived nitrog...