Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

CHEMICAL ECOLOGY

Making use of surplus sugar

Nature Chemical Biology volume 16, pages 1283–1284 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Insects have many ways of disabling plant chemical defenses during feeding. Plant phloem feeders use surplus ingested sugar to block the activation of glucosinolate toxins, providing a target for precise resistance breeding.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The glucosinolate-myrosinase system and adaptations in whiteflies.

References

  1. Traka, M. H. Adv. Bot. Res. 80, 247–279 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wittstock, U. et al. Adv. Bot. Res. 80, 125–169 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Malka, O. et al. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-00658-6 (2020).

  4. Jeschke, V. et al. Adv. Bot. Res. 80, 199–245 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Edger, P. P. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 8362–8366 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Jander, G. Ann. Plant Rev. 47, 361–384 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Garcia, L. C. & Eubanks, M. D. Ecology 100, e02585 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Züst, T. et al. eLife 9, e51712 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu, S. et al. Biotechnol. Adv. 39, 107463 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Eakteiman, G. et al. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 100, 10–21 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Niels Agerbirk

Authors
  1. Niels Agerbirk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niels Agerbirk.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Agerbirk, N. Making use of surplus sugar. Nat Chem Biol 16, 1283–1284 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-00687-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-00687-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing