Biochemistry of How Plants Resist Insect Attack Determined
Date: 24.11.2010
Many plants, including crops, release volatiles in response to insect attack. The chemical compounds can be a defense or can be an aromatic call for help to attract enemies of the attacking insect.
The research is reported this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To gain detailed insight into volatile defense metabolism and its regulation in plant tissues, the researchers focused on the formation of two common volatile compounds, or homoterpenes -- DMNT (4,8-dimethylnona-1,3,7-triene) and TMTT (4,8,12-trimethyltrideca-1,3,7,11-tetraene). They discovered that formation of both compounds is initiated by the same P450 enzyme -- belonging to a family of enzymes that initiates oxidation of organic compounds in most plants, animals, and bacteria. In plants, the enzyme is specifically activated by insect attack.
Sources:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/11/17/1009975107.abstract
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115161156.htm
