Scientists decode chemical defense against plant sap-sucking leafhoppers

In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology describe a newly discovered mechanism that protects a wild tobacco species from plant sap-sucking leafhoppers. By combining different genetic screening methods with the study of chemical changes in tobacco leaves, they identified a previously unknown defense substance important for the tobacco’s resistance to leafhoppers and characterized the genes for its biosynthesis

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft