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Defence on demand: mechanisms behind optimal defence patterns
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The optimal defence hypothesis (ODH) predicts that tissues that contribute most to a plant's fitness and have the highest probability of being attacked will be the parts best defended against biotic threats, including herbivores. In general, young sink tissues and reproductive structures show stronger induced defence responses after attack from pathogens and herbivores and contain higher basal levels of specialized defensive metabolites than other plant parts. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms responsible for these developmentally regulated defence patterns remain unknown. SCOPE: This review summarizes current knowledge about optimal defence patterns in above- and below-ground plant tissues, including information on basal and induced defence metabolite accumulation, defensive structures and their regulation by jasmonic acid (JA). Physiological regulations underlying developmental differences of tissues with contrasting defence patterns are highlighted, with a special focus on the role of classical plant growth hormones, including auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins and brassinosteroids, and their interactions with the JA pathway. By synthesizing recent findings about the dual roles of these growth hormones in plant development and defence responses, this review aims to provide a framework for new discoveries on the molecular basis of patterns predicted by the ODH. CONCLUSIONS: Almost four decades after its formulation, we are just beginning to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for the patterns of defence allocation predicted by the ODH. A requirement for future advances will be to understand how developmental and defence processes are integrated.
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“A drop in secondary metabolite levels, as is often observed a few weeks after germination or at the onset of flowering, for instance (Meldau et al., 2012;Barton and Boege, 2017), may reflect an increased need of primary metabolites and nutrients rather than a drop in herbivore pressure.”
From Plant Secondary Metabolites as Defenses, Regulators, and Primary Metabolites: The Blurred Functional Trichotomy (2020) · cites this paper as Meldau et al., 2012
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BackgroundPre-dispersal seed predators boost seed production in a short-lived plant
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“Later, this theory and its assumptions were refined by Coley et al. ( 1985), and Meldau et al. (2012) bridged evolutionary theory and molecular biology, explaining how hormonal signalling produces the defence allocation patterns predicted by ODT.”
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“The lower flavonoid diversity and quantity in stems may reflect a different investment strategy in chemical defense, prioritizing physical barrier formation over the biosynthesis of a broad spectrum of soluble phenolics (Meldau et al. 2012).”
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Sex-specific Resource Allocation in Juvenile and Adult Salix myrtillacea
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“The younger fragile tissue, the more susceptible to insect attack (Meldau et al. 2012).”
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“These defence response patterns could induce competition or lead to tissue-specific production (Meldau et al. 2012), the latter of which has been reported for fungal defence effectors in the mushroom-producing species Coprinopsis cinerea (Plaza et al. 2014, 2016; Stockli et al. 2017).”
BackgroundResource Allocation Among Cladodes of Opuntia Robusta From East-central MexicoPreprint
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“…since the former have a higher photosynthetic potential that allows plant to increase the allocation of resources to reproductive tissues, and in turn, to increase the reproductive success, and thus, their loss implies stronger tness impairment (McKey 1974; Meldau et al. 2012; van Dam et al. 1994).”
BackgroundPhotosynthetic responses of Eucalyptus seedlings submitted to chemical and mechanical stimulus
Lima, P. R., Malavasi, U. C., Battistus, A. G., Dranski, J. A. L., & Malavasi, M. D. M. (2019) · Ciência Florestal · doi:10.5902/1980509830685 · Cited by 1
Differences in resources use lead to coexistence of seed-transmitted microbial populations
Torres-Cortés, G., Garcia, B. J., Compant, S., Rezki, S., Jones, P., Préveaux, A., Briand, M., Roulet, A., Bouchez, O., Jacobson, D. A., et al. (2019) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/560367 · Cited by 1
Amorim-Silva, V., García-Moreno, Á., Castillo, A. G., Lakhssassi, N., Pérez-Sancho, J., Li, Y., del Valle, A. D., Posé, D., Pérez-Rodriguez, J., Lin, J.-X., et al. (2018) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/351056 · Cited by 1
Iqbal, S., Tariq, K., Elatafi, E., Elhendawy, B., Yu, H., Liu, W., Ali, S., Aziz, R. B., Nadeem, M. Y., & Fang, J.-G. (2026) · Physiologia Plantarum : An International Journal for Plant Biology · doi:10.1111/ppl.71165
Stem Surface Microstructure and Plant–Insect Interactions: A Perspective
Gorb, E., & Gorb, S. (2026) · Plants · doi:10.3390/plants15182751
Kebili, Z., Mahammed, M., & Hammoudi, R. (2026) · Biology Bulletin · doi:10.1134/s1062359026602338
“…the Optimal Defence Hypothesis, which posits that subterra-nean tissues—being the primary interface with persistent abiotic stressors such as salinity, drought, and redox imbalance—invest proportionally more metabolic resources in synthesizing defensive phenolic compounds (Meldau et al., 2012).”
Boubeker, S., Cusson, M., Despland, E., Bauce, É., Ripoll, L., Pichette, A., MacKay, J., & Deslauriers, A. (2026) · Annals of Forest Science · doi:10.1186/s13595-026-01342-w
“In this context, our results are consistent with the optimal defence theory, predicting that plants allocate defenses preferentially to tissues that are most valuable for survival and least replaceable (Meldau et al. 2012).”
Rani, H., Sharma, S., Kaur, H., Mittal, M., Atri, C., Kaur, G., Kaur, R., & Banga, S. S. (2026) · Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology · doi:10.1007/s13562-026-01071-1
“by herbivores and pathogens (Meldau et al. 2012).”
The Defense Responses of Eucalyptus to Insect-Feeding and Leaf-Clipping Stresses
Chen, C., Zhang, Z.-H., Lin, W., Xu, M., Lin, Z., Zheng, K., Ailiminuer, T., Wu, Q., Chen, X., & Chen, H. (2026) · Life · doi:10.3390/life16040604
“The concentration of POD often increases rapidly in the short term but gradually returns to normal levels—or may even fall below baseline—over time [34].”
Carollo, C., Boaretto, A., Nocetti, M., Carollo, A. R., & Alves, F. M. (2026) · The Plant Journal · doi:10.1111/tpj.70820
“At the clade scale, Magnoliids exhibited the highest average chemical density (3.46), exceeding Monocots (2.41) and Eudicots (2.60), consistent with the hypothesis that Magnoliids rely on chemically complex, often locally deployed defenses (Gottlieb, 1990; Meldau et al., 2012).”
InfluentialHow Do Plants Defend Themselves From Root-Eating Creatures?
Touw, A., & van Dam, N. (2022) · Frontiers for Young Minds · doi:10.3389/frym.2022.660701
“In this case, the plantmovesmost defenses to the plant parts that are most important for survival and are vulnerable to attack by herbivores [3].”
BackgroundHunziker, P., Lambertz, S., Weber, K., Crocoll, C., Halkier, B., & Schulz, A. (2021) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2021.06.27.450062
Mertens, D., Bouwmeester, K., & Poelman, E. (2020) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2020.12.06.413724
“Plants evolved inducible defences that are activated upon recognition of attack to save metabolic costs associated with production and maintenance of defence when herbivores are absent (Meldau et al. 2012).”
BackgroundMurugasridevi, K., Jeyarani, S., & Kumar, S. (2019) · International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences · doi:10.20546/ijcmas.2019.808.321
“Cytokinins (CKs) are one of the phytohormones that play a key role in plant morphology, plant defense, inhibition of senescence, regulation of cell division and enable the insects to withdraw plant resources for their own advantage (Meldau et al., 2012; Giron et al., 2013).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Meldau, S., Erb, M., & Baldwin, I. T.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Meldau, Stefan
- Venue
- Annals of Botany
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-09-28
- Volume
- 110
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1503-1514
- ISSN
- 0305-7364 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-8290
- PMC
- PMC3503495
- OpenAlex
- W2072280600
- Cited by
- 197
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 17
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Annals of Botany (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Keywords
- induced defense, jasmonic acid, plant hormones, auxin, cytokinins, gibberellin, brassinosteroids, sink tissues, herbivory, plant development, plant-pathogen interaction, plant-herbivore interactions
- MeSH terms
- Plant Diseases, Plant Growth Regulators, Plants, Signal Transduction, Plant Components, Aerial, Plant Immunity, Herbivory, Plant Development
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