GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have found plants under attack by insects can emit chemicals to attract the pests' natural enemies or launch other defensive tactics.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists have identified a specific class of small peptide elicitors that help plants react to insect attack.
In the self-defense strategy, proteins present in the plant are ingested by insect attackers. Then the insects unwittingly convert the food into a peptide elicitor, which is secreted back onto plants during later feedings. Recognizing the secreted elicitor as a kind of "SOS," plants launch defensive chemistry. That, said the scientists, allows the development and genetic manipulation of plants with improved protection against pests.
A team led by Eric Schmelz at the Agriculture Department's Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology previously identified and isolated an 11 amino acid peptide, inceptin, that plays a warning role in cowpea plants being attacked by the fall armyworm.
In the latest study, Schmelz, Sherry LeClere, Mark Carroll, Hans Alborn and Peter Teal confirmed inceptin's role as the dominant peptide in the cowpea's defense.
The study appears in the June issue of the journal Plant Physiology.
