Plant responses to multiple stress factors
Background
Extrafloral Nectaries: A herbivore inducible indirect defense
Plants have evolved multiple traits that provide resistance against a range of biotic and abiotic stress factors. The majority of studies on plant resistance have focussed on one particular trait and its effect on one particular stress factor. However, plants usually employ multiple lines of resistance against multiple stress factors simultaneously. For instance, in response to herbivore attack plants both express traits that have a direct negative impact on the herbivore, and traits that enhance the efficacy of the herbivore’s natural enemies.
In order to better understand the functioning of plant resistance we study how plants integrate the expression of multiple (inducible) resistance traits in response to various combinations of biotic and abiotic stress factors.
Publications
- Wäckers FL, Bonifay C (2004) How to be sweet? extrafloral nectar allocation in Gossypium hirsutum fits optimal defense theory predictions. Ecology
- Vos, M., Verschoor, A.M., Kooi, B.W., Wäckers, F.L., DeAngelis, D.L. Mooij, W.M. (2004). Inducible defenses and trophic structure. Ecology 85:2783-2794.
- Turlings TCJ, Wäckers FL (2004) Recruitment of predators and parasitoids by herbivore-injured plants. In: Cardé RT, Millar J (eds) Advances in Chemical Ecology of Insects, pp 21-75