Priming, Plant Defense Against Insects, and Peptide Hormones

Plants use priming as an essential physiological process to improve their defense response to biotic stressors, including insect herbivores, through a learning process that makes them stronger against future attacks. The plant defense system implements chemical and physical methods through priming to improve defense response effectiveness against herbivore attacks. The chapter investigates plant priming mechanisms, which include chemical and biological components, while emphasizing epigenetic modifications and signal pathways that involve salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene. The chapter discusses how peptide hormones, systemin and phytosulfokine, function in plant defense systems. The chapter provides details about herbivore-induced plant volatiles, alongside natural and synthetic elicitors, and their linked defense responses of plants against insect herbivores. The chapter demonstrates practical agricultural applications of priming agents through biopriming and xenobiotic compound-mediated priming, which lead to enhanced crop resistance and decreased dependence on chemical pesticides. The discussion concludes by presenting potential future research paths that require additional molecular-level understanding of existing gaps. The chapter investigates how priming strategies might affect worldwide food safety through sustainable pest control methods based on new research evidence.