Is plant immunity is applicable to insect herbivores?

Question

Is plant immunity is applicable to insect herbivores?

Answer 1

Some plants produce secondary metabolites that make them poisonous or at least bad tasting.

Answer 2

Plant immunity is very ambiguous term but two of the major plant hormones---jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA)---involved in defense against pathogens have also been shown to be involved in defense against insect herbivores. There are a number of publications that have demonstrated that jasmonic acid levels are down-regulated upon insect attack due to an increase in the level of salicylic acid. SA and JA are known antagonists and it has been shown that JA has insecticidal properties. In fact gene expression studies have shown that a number of genes expressed during pathogen attack are also expressed during insect herbivory. Now insect herbivory is of two types--chewing (catter pillers) and piercing&sucking (aphids). The foliar damage due chewing insects gives rise to an apparent defense response, but the defense response in the case of piercing&sucking type of insects is more subtle as the damage to plant tissues is not that obvious. So in conclusion it can be stated that plant-immune responses do get turned on upon insect herbivory though it still remains a vastly unanswered field

Answer 3

Herbivorous insects use diverse feeding strategies to obtain nutrients from their host plants. Rather than acting as passive victims in these interactions, plants respond to this insect attack with the production of toxins and defensive proteins that target physiological processes in the insect. Herbivore-challenged plants also emit volatiles that attract insect predators and bolster resistance to future threats.

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/...

Answer 4

no