Flies avoid a plant's poison using a newly identified taste mechanism

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 07:35 in Biology & Nature

Many plants protect themselves from hungry animals by producing toxic chemicals. In turn, animals rely on detecting the presence of these harmful chemicals to avoid consuming dangerous plant material. A paper, published in this week's issue of PLoS Biology, investigates the response of an insect to a common plant weapon - the toxin L-canavanine.

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