Background Plants are hotbeds for parasites such as arthropod herbivores, which acquire
nutrients and energy from their hosts in order to grow and reproduce. Hence plants are …

Brassica vegetable and oilseed crops are attacked by several different flea beetle species
(Chrysomelidae: Alticini). Over the past decades, most research has focused on two …

Despite the phylogenetic distance between plants and insects, these two groups of
organisms produce some secondary metabolites in common. Identical structures belonging …

Oilseed rape (OSR) is the second largest source of vegetable oil globally and the most
important biofuel feedstock in the European Union (EU) but the production of this important …

In response to herbivore attack, plants mobilize chemical defenses and release distinct
bouquets of volatiles. Aboveground herbivores are known to use changes in leaf volatile …

The ability of a specialized herbivore to overcome the chemical defense of a particular plant
taxon not only makes it accessible as a food source but may also provide metabolites to be …

Highly adapted herbivores can phenocopy two-component systems by stabilizing,
sequestering and reactivating plant toxins. However, whether these traits protect herbivores …

The glucosinolate–myrosinase system is the main activated chemical defence present
among plants of the order Brassicales, which includes agriculturally important crucifer crops …

Sesquiterpenes play important roles in insect communication, for example as pheromones.
However, no sesquiterpene synthases, the enzymes involved in construction of the basic …

ABSTRACT Vegetables, cultivated on 4.65 million ha with annual production of 53.5 million t
in South and Southeast Asia, are subject to severe yield losses from insect pests and …