BIOL 114: The Effect of simulated herbivory on Arabidopsis thaliana growth and development

Studies have shown that plants develop overcompensation defense mechanisms in response to herbivory. Due to how insects tend to feed on plants, leaves are exposed to degradation. In order to analyze the defense mechanisms, Arabidopsis thaliana was grown for 5 weeks and then herbivory was simulated by cutting 2 leaves per plant and then measuring growth again after 2 weeks. Both wild type and a mutant Arabidopsis was grown to see how the mutation affected its response. The growth and response of normal and mutant plants to simulated herbivory damage was evaluated and analyzed. Results have shown that even though there was a significant difference in the number of leaves in the wild type control group compared to the wild type plants that were cut, the mutant plants that sustained damage responded in a similar way to the mutant control group even though they were not damaged. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the number of leaves growth in both wild type and mutant experimental groups. This demonstrates that plants exposed to simulated herbivory are capable of compensating leaf growth as if it was not damaged and suggests that the mutated gene might be involved in herbivory response.