Our lab is interested in how native and agricultural
plants defend themselves against insect herbivores
and how herbivores overcome these plant defenses.
We have ongoing projects examining the following:
1) What compounds in certain plants in the nightshade
family protect these plants from generalist herbivores
2) How specialized herbivores evolve to recognize
their appropriate host plant when it grows among
hundreds of other plants
3) How plants respond to insect herbivore injury
by emitting specific volatile compounds that attract
predators of the herbivore
4) How insects genetically adapt to transgenic
crops that produce Bt toxins and how this adaptation
can be stymied by appropriate engineering and
deployment of the plant. |
