Dale Walters is based at Crop & Soil Systems Research Group, Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK.

"In conclusion, the new volume by Walters provides a great basis for an introductory course in plant defenses as part of an upper-level undergraduate or graduate curriculum in ecology, applied entomology, plant pathology, plant biology, or plant breeding.." (The Quarterly Review of Biology, 1 December 2011) "The advances in this field have been striking. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." (Choice, 1 May 2011)

• Preface xChapter 1 Why Do Plants Need Defenses? 11.1 Plants as sources of food 11.2 Organisms that use plants as food 21.3 Impact of infection and herbivory in natural and agricultural ecosystems 61.4 Conclusions 11Chapter 2 What Defenses Do Plants Use? 152.1 Introduction 152.2 Defenses used against pathogens 152.3 Defenses used against parasitic plants 372.4 Defenses used against nematodes 412.5 Defenses used against herbivorous insects 442.6 Defenses used against vertebrate herbivores 582.7 Defenses used against neighboring plants--allelopathy 642.8 Conclusions 66Chapter 3 Sounding the Alarm: Signaling and Communication in Plant Defense 773.1 Introduction 773.2 Signaling in plant-pathogen interactions 773.3 Signaling in plant-nematode interactions 913.4 Signaling in plant-insect herbivore interactions 933.5 Signaling in interactions between plants and vertebrate herbivores 1103.6 Signaling in interactions between plants and parasitic plants 1103.7 Conclusions 111Chapter 4 Plant Defense in the Real World: Multiple Attackers and Beneficial Interactions 1254.1 Introduction 1254.2 Dealing with multiple attackers: cross-talk between signaling pathways 1264.3 Can beneficial plant-microbe interactions induce resistance in plants? 1434.4 Conclusions 146Chapter 5 The Evolution of Plant Defense 1535.1 Introduction 1535.2 Hypotheses of plant defense 1535.3 Evolution of plant defense strategies 1635.4 Patterns of plant defense evolution 1695.5 Why do plants have induced defenses? 1725.6 The coevolutionary arms race 1835.7 Conclusions 191Chapter 6 Exploiting Plant Defense 2016.1 Introduction 2016.2 Using plant resistance to protect crops--breeding 2016.3 Using plant resistance to protect crops--induced resistance 2136.4 Using plant resistance to protect crops--biotechnological approaches 2206.5 Conclusions 224Recommended reading 225References 225Index 231