Flies avoid a plant's poison using a newly identified taste mechanism
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 08:42
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...