Deceiving Your Host: Stealthy Feeding and Mixed Messages

Plants and their herbivores have evolved complex relationships. The mechanics of feeding and oral secretions influence the activation and/or suppression of defense-signaling pathways in response to herbivory. The role of defense hormone jasmonic acid and wound-signaling modulator leucine aminopeptidase in activating tomato defenses that antagonize lepidopteran caterpillar (Manduca sexta) growth and development will be discussed. A contrasting strategy for success on host plants is employed by whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci). This insect expresses salicylic acid-regulated defenses, suppresses efficacious jasmonic acid-regulated defenses and thereby engineers its host for enhanced success of its progeny. The correlation of insect behaviors, as recorded by electropenetration graphs studies, with plants expressing enhanced or suppressed resistance will be discussed.