Technical article · Innovak News
Insect and pathogen attacks on plants have been a growing concern over the past decades. As a result, extensive research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms plants use to defend themselves through a complex system involving multiple levels of protection.
The protection mechanisms plants have developed against biotic and abiotic factors are physical or chemical, and constitutive or induced. Physical barriers include the composition and structure of the cuticle, trichomes, stomata, and cell wall. Chemical barriers consist of the production of tannins, terpenes, resins, and alkaloids before a pathogen attack.
The disadvantage of this defense strategy lies in response time: it requires years of evolutionary modifications and structural gene generation for a change to occur in a physical or chemical barrier. This is where biostimulants can significantly accelerate and enhance these defense mechanisms.
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