Plants Have Mechanism to Seek for Help when Sensing Insects' Attack, Research Says

Scientists from Wageningen University and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) have completed a research study on the mechanism of plants to seek for help once insect pests' eggs were deposited on them which is the initial phase of the herbivore attack.

The research team investigated how parasitic wasps, natural enemies of a common cabbage pest; the large cabbage white butterfly; and gravid butterfly females respond to the black mustard, a cabbage relative, once it emits odor as the eggs are laid on its leaves. The study reveals that butterfly egg deposition triggers highly specific chemical and structural changes in the plant that attract different parasitic wasps attacking either butterfly eggs or caterpillars but repel egg-laying butterflies.

See the full journal article at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0043607.