New Book Explores Research On Plant Defense Systems

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The discovery that plants respond actively to specific attacks by herbivores and pathogens is the topic of a new, state-of-the-discipline critical overview co-authored by Ian T. Baldwin, University at Buffalo associate professor of biological sciences and a specialist on plant defense systems.

The book, "Induced Responses to Herbivory" (University of Chicago Press, 1997), is a comprehensive review and analysis by Baldwin and Richard Karban, professor of entomology at the University of California at Davis, of the many circumstances in which induced responses have been observed in plants.

The authors have synthesized the diverse literature and research on the topic using approaches of biochemical ecology, molecular biology and population biology. They describe the different ways in which plants detect damage and respond to it, as well as examine the mechanisms responsible for induced resistance and defense.

Also discussed are the types of plants, herbivores and environments in which induced resistance is found and the consequences on herbivore life history and population dynamics. The authors propose guidelines for collecting data on the effects of induced resistance on plant fitness and evaluate evidence for various theories of why selection might favor induced, rather than constitutive, plant defenses.

Baldwin and Karban also present the prospective problems and advantages of developing induced responses for management of agricultural pest populations.

The content is targeted toward theoretical and applied researchers in ecology, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, plant biology, entomology and agriculture.

The book has been described as scientifically acute and written in an appealing manner, as well as a prospective classic in the emergent discipline of chemical ecology.

A UB faculty member since 1989, Baldwin received a five-year Presidential Young Investigator grant from the National Science Foundation in 1991 to conduct research on the natural chemical defenses plants use to fight off pests.

He reported a breakthrough in research to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995 when he stated that plants are like animals in the sense that they "remember" when they've been attacked and that they respond faster to future attacks by hastening production of chemical defenses.

Baldwin received a doctorate from Cornell University. He is on leave from UB and is serving as the founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany.