ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the uses of conserved germplasm for the study of insect-plant interactions. It shows how these genetic resources have advanced our knowledge of the factors mediating insect-plant interactions. Expanded use of conserved germplasm by entomologists and ecologists has the potential to reveal more about the ecology and evolution of insect-plant interactions. Increased knowledge of plant defense mechanisms will facilitate pest resistance breeding and expedite the incorporation of different defensive traits into commercial cultivars. Identification of insect-defensive chemicals in crops and crop relatives continues, exemplified by research with conserved germplasm to reveal the diversity and complexity of chemical defenses in plants. Plants vary genetically in “tolerance” or the degree to which insect feeding reduces yield or fitness. Endophytic fungi in grasses influence insect parasitoids and perhaps predators. Plants with “glossy” mutations that reduce surface waxblooms often have lower populations of some insect herbivores compared with normal-wax plants in the field.
