Making use of surplus sugar

November 16th, 2020 by Niels Agerbirk

Nature Chemical Biology, Published online: 16 November 2020; doi:10.1038/s41589-020-00687-1

Insects have many ways of disabling plant chemical defenses during feeding. Plant phloem feeders use surplus ingested sugar to block the activation of glucosinolate toxins, providing a target for precise resistance breeding.