Insect Resistance in Plants: Natural Mechanisms and Improvement Through Biotechnology

Abstract

Plants, by necessity, have evolved a fascinating array of structural and chemical defenses against insect attack. The degree of resistance and the mechanisms used to achieve this resistance, however, may vary tremendously between species and even between cultivars. Insect resistance in plants has been divided into three general categories. Insect resistance can be due to structural characteristics of the plant or can result from chemical defenses which are present constitutively or which are induced by the onset of insect attack. Plant proteinase inhibitors, particularly those which are wound inducible, have received a great deal of attention, both from biochemists and molecular biologists interested in fundamental questions of plant-insect interactions, plant signal transduction, and gene activation as well as from those interested in the practical application of utilizing inhibitor genes to create insect resistant transgenic plants.