New protein discovery sheds light on how plants warn undamaged leaves of insect attacks

UPDATE - follow-up to Indian scientists find new gateway in plants' alarm system: Insect pests cause roughly 20% of global annual crop losses, a figure projected to rise with warming, while crop protection still relies heavily on chemical insecticides. Researchers at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi have now identified a previously uncharacterised protein that helps a plant warn undamaged leaves when an insect attacks one of them. While animals possess a nervous system and can flee from danger, plants cannot move away. Even so, a bite on a single leaf sets off an alarm that reaches other parts of the plant within minutes. Scientists studying these defence systems note that when a leaf is chewed, internal protection mechanisms are quickly activated. ## Context Understanding how plants naturally sense and react to pests helps researchers find new ways to protect crops without relying entirely on chemical sprays. This builds on ongoing scientific efforts to improve how food crops defend themselves against pests in changing climates.