BIOL208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Volatile Organic Compound, Chemoreceptor, Herbivore
20 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
There is selection on plants to develop strategies to avoid herbivory. Two types: resistance less likely to be eaten at all tolerance how plants deal with damage after the fact overcompensation. Mechanical defense (physical): thorns, spikes, tricombs, production of latex. Chemical defense: compounds that plants produce to prevent damage. Toxic chemicals: compounds that kill, harm, repel, make it hard for an organism to breath. Digestion reducing compounds: compounds that make material less nutritional valuable. Bind to plant proteins and make it difficult to break down. Make it hard for animals to get the nutrients out of that plant. Some animals avoid toxic plants and have come up with strategies: Can consume toxic compounds and sequester them for their own defenses. Expensive , spending a lot of energy to produce these compounds instead of growing. Induced: after damage chemicals increase in the leaves. Knee-jerk reaction plants ready to produce chemicals, but doesn"t until it needs to.
