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Modelling the Defensive Potential of Plants

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Growth and Defence in Plants

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 220))

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Abstract

Many products of the phenylpropanoid pathway play an important role in plant defence against different kinds of biotic and abiotic stress. The “growth–differentiation balance theory” is a conceptual framework to predict how environmental factors can influence the level of these compounds in plant tissues. In this chapter, we unveil fundamental difficulties in testing the explanatory capacity of this theory by experiments and present the potential of mechanistic modelling to support empirical evidence in this field. In different examples, the plant growth model PLATHO is used to analyse observed patterns of plant responses to experimental treatments through simulating allocation rates between different biochemical pools from plant internal source and sink strengths of carbon and nitrogen during different phenological growth stages. It is shown that divergent responses of plants to abiotic factors such as elevated CO2 are feasible with respect to allocation to carbon-based secondary compounds, depending on ecological conditions under which plants are growing.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft which funded this study within the frame of Sonderforschungsbereich 607 Growth and Parasite Defence – Competition for Resources in Economic Plants from Forestry and Agronomy. We further gratefully thank Thorsten Grams for providing growth parameters of beech and spruce trees from different experimental studies and Axel Göttlein for providing data of nutrient concentrations in organs of juvenile beech trees.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    S. Gayler & E. Priesack

  2. Water & Earth System Science (WESS) Competence Cluster, c/o University of Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, 72074, Tübingen, Germany

    S. Gayler

  3. Pathology of Woody Plants, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany

    F. Fleischmann

  4. Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    W. Heller

  5. Chair for Forest Growth and Yield Science, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany

    T. Rötzer

  6. Department of Forest and Wood Science, Stellenbosch University, Bosman Street, 7599, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    T. Seifert

  7. Chair of Ecophysiology of Plants, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany

    R. Matyssek

Authors
  1. S. Gayler
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  2. E. Priesack
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  3. F. Fleischmann
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  4. W. Heller
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  5. T. Rötzer
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  6. T. Seifert
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  7. R. Matyssek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Gayler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Ecophysiology of Plants, Technical University of Munich Chair of Ecophysiology of Plants, Freising, Germany

    Rainer Matyssek

  2. Chair of Grassland Science, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany

    Hans Schnyder

  3. Chair of Phytopathology of Woody Plants, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany

    Wolfgang Oßwald

  4. Institute of Biochemcial Plant Biology, Helmholtz-Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

    Dieter Ernst

  5. Institute of Soil Ecology, Helmholtz-Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

    Jean Charles Munch

  6. LS Waldwachstumskunde, TU München LS Waldwachstumskunde, Freising, Germany

    Hans Pretzsch

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Gayler, S. et al. (2012). Modelling the Defensive Potential of Plants. In: Matyssek, R., Schnyder, H., Oßwald, W., Ernst, D., Munch, J., Pretzsch, H. (eds) Growth and Defence in Plants. Ecological Studies, vol 220. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30645-7_17

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