Faster growing plants may be linked to less pest resistance

Plants have developed complex defense mechanisms including spines, thorns, leaf hairs and a number of toxic chemical substances. Researchers at the Univ. of Zurich and Univ. of Calif.-Davis studied the impact of fast growth and high yields on defense mechanisms. Their findings, “Using knockout mutants to reveal the growth costs of defensive traits”, have been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
The researchers used the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to show mutants with suppressed defense mechanisms had an increased growth rate. However, the faster growth comes at an added cost. The researchers found that aphids reproduced faster on these plants than on slow growing plants with intact defense mechanisms. Tobias Züst at the Univ.of Zurich said the increased susceptibility of the faster-growing plants was the result of faster-growing plants providing more resources to the aphids than slow-growing plants in the same amount of time.

Pictured: Researchers have found that fast-growing, higher yielding plants may be more susceptible to insect pests because they have suppressed defense mechanisms.
Photo courtesy of Univ. of Zurich