Nitrogen-intensive Plastic Responses to Herbivory: Primary Role for a Secondary Metabolite

食草动物的生长被大多数研究者认为是 在很大程度上受到植物氮含量的限制。 当一个 植物被吃掉，其剩余的组织表现出过多的 这些反应不仅包括 浓度的“次级”代谢物（推定的诱导 可能有助于植物抵抗的防御 食草动物），而且还有一套生理反应， 包括光合速率增加（据推测 有助于植物对食草动物的适应性）。 这项建议 研究植物如何整合这两套反应， 从而提出了植物如何解决潜在的冲突， 其“防御性”和“民用”生化反应的要求 食草动物的攻击 将检查这种代谢整合 在一种植物（欧洲烟草）中， “防御性”反应--有毒生物碱的产生--以及 “平民”的反应--包括光合能力--使 对植物氮平衡的巨大需求。 由于氮是 植物生长的重要限制因素， 会设计氮在生物碱和 蛋白质合成，以检查这种代谢整合。 农业抗虫研究一直是人们关注的焦点 在两个方面：植物的化学和物理特性， 对害虫攻击的抗性和 与适应草食动物有关的植物。 对此即使有所 研究已经探索了将防御与防御相结合， 以及对食草动物的耐受性。 和理解本 如果我们要超越 植物保护的“农药方法”。 这将是第一 项目审查化学防御作为一个组成部分， 植物再生失去的组织的生理过程 到食草动物

The growth of herbivores is recognized by most researcher to be limited in large part by a plant's nitrogen content. When a plant is eaten, its remaining tissues exhibit a plethora of responses that include not only the dramatic increases in the concentrations of "secondary" metabolites (the putative induced defenses which presumably contribute to a plant's resistance to herbivory) but also a suite of physiological responses that include increases in photosynthetic rates( which presumably contribute to a plant's resilience to herbivory). This proposal examines how a plant integrates these two suites of responses and thus asks how a plant resolves the potentially conflicting demands of its "defensive" and "civilian" biochemical responses to herbivore attack. This metabolic integration will be examined in a species of plant (Nicotiana sylvestris) where both the "defensive" responses--the production of toxic alkaloids--and the "civilian" responses--included photosynthetic capacity--make large demands on a plant's nitrogen budget. Since nitrogen is frequently the important limiting element for plants growth, we will choreograph the movement of nitrogen between alkaloid and protein synthesis in order to examine this metabolic integration. Research on pest-resistance in agriculture has been focused on two fronts: the chemical and physical of plants that confer resistance to pest attack and the physiological attributes of plants associated with resilience to herbivory. Little, if any research has explored the integration of both the defense against and the tolerance to herbivory. And understanding of this integration is essential if we are to proceed beyond the "pesticide-approach" to plant protection. This will be the first project to examine chemical defense as an integral part of the physiological processes by which plants regrow those tissues lost to herbivores.