Plants That “Get Some” More Likely to Defend Against Insect Attacks

July 15th, 2009

Plants that reproduce sexually, compared to those that reproduce in an asexual manner appear to have a much better defense against insect attacks.

In research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from North Carolina State University and Duke University discovered that sexually produced evening primrose plants withstand attacks from plant-eaters like caterpillars better than plant relatives that reproduce by themselves.

The findings are important steps to learning more about how plants have evolved defenses against insect herbivores, says Dr. Marc Johnson, assistant professor of plant biology at NC State and the lead author of the research paper.

“The variation in sexual reproduction has a large impact on the ability of plants to evolve defenses against herbivores,” Johnson says.

Too bad humans don’t have the same ability. Certainly thsoe not getting any are more likley to have to find call center outsourcing to deal with loneliness. Be nice to know promiscuous sexual activity had this added defense benefit though with the added risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Hey…at least you get to brag a lot…lol