Nature Communications (Aug 2016)
Immune modulation enables a specialist insect to benefit from antibacterial withanolides in its host plant
Abstract
Certain plants in the nightshade family contain withanolides, defensive chemicals known to be harmful to most insect herbivores. Here, Barthel et al. show that a moth species that is a specialist herbivore of these plants benefits from the compounds by gaining increased immunity to a pathogen.