Gianni Vandenborre

Inducible lectins in plant defense and insect glycobiology

To protect themselves against threats like insect herbivory, evolution has provided plants different constitutive and inducible defense mechanisms. The induced defense response in plants towards chewing insects is characterized by a jasmonate-dependent alteration of the gene expression profile, which leads to accumulation of newly synthesized proteins called jasmonate-induced proteins. Recently, a lectin called Nicotiana tabacum agglutinin or NICTABA has been discovered in the leaves of tobacco Nicotiana tabacum cv Samsun NN. It was shown that expression of NICTABA is also induced after insect herbivory.