Plant-Microbe Interactions: Chemical Diversity in Plant Defense
Pawe
Bednarek1,* and
Anne Osbourn2,*
The chemical diversity within the plant kingdom is likely to
be a consequence of niche colonization and adaptive evolution.
Plant-derived natural products have important functions in defense.
They also have broader ecological roles and may in addition
participate in plant growth and development. Recent data suggest
that some antimicrobial phytochemicals may not serve simply
as chemical barriers but could also have functions in defense-related
signaling processes. It is important, therefore, that we should
not to be too reductionist in our thinking when endeavoring
to understand the forces and mechanisms that drive chemical
diversification in plants.
2 Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bednarek{at}mpiz-koeln.mpg.de (P.D.); anne.osbourn{at}bbsrc.ac.uk (A.O.)
