Natural pesticides

Have you ever wondered about that sharp, green note that hits your nose when you mow the lawn or cut flower stems? Those are green leaf volatiles, or GLVs: easily evaporated oils that plants use to communicate with other plants and defend themselves against herbivores or pathogens like bacteria or fungi. Almost every green plant can quickly synthesize and release GLVs when attacked, both directly warding off attackers as well as indirectly attracting predators of herbivores like insects and priming the plant’s other defense mechanisms. Researchers know that GLVs play an important role in protecting plants, but how they work remains unclear. I am a biochemistry researcher, and through a collaboration between the Wang Lab and Stratmann Lab of the University of South Carolina, my colleagues and I study how plant cells deploy green leaf volatiles. In our recently published research, we identified the potential signaling pathways GLVs use to induce defense responses in tomato c...

King Solomon may have gained some of his famed wisdom from an unlikely source – ants. According to a Jewish legend, Solomon conversed with a clever ant queen that confronted his pride, making quite an impression on the Israelite king. In the biblical book of Proverbs (6:6-8), Solomon shares this advice with his son: “Look to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” While I can’t claim any familial connection to King Solomon, despite sharing his name, I’ve long admired the wisdom of ants and have spent over 20 years studying their ecology, evolution and behaviors. While the notion that ants may offer lessons for humans has certainly been around for a while, there may be new wisdom to gain from what scientists have learned about their biology. Ants have evolved highly complex social organizations...