The study of plant defense genes and proteins

Abstract

The study of the process by which plants can survive and adapt to environmental changes has great importance in several areas of scientific knowledge. Plants can survive against the attack of predators, not only due its constitution molecular components. New molecules can appear or increase in composition from plants under predation. Defense proteins are molecular components associated with this type of stress, and are related to specific group of genes. Nowadays, many is known about the processes of expression of defense proteins in response to herbivory and the action of pathogens, but many steps of this pathway still need to be understood. Likewise, the protective action of many proteins related to plant defense needs further studies, although this type of research was hugely helped by the advent of genetically modified plants expressing these proteins. This review is a brief introduction to the knowledge of plant defense proteins and their genes. More common examples and details about the induction of these ones are regarded.