ArticlePlant physiology2006
Medicago truncatula mutants demonstrate the role of plant calcium oxalate crystals as an effective defense against chewing insects.
Article in Plant physiology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microbes Isolated from Ailanthus altissima Leaves Contribute to Samia cynthia's Tolerance to the Toxic Quassinoid Diterpenoid.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Characterizing the causes and consequences of calcium oxalate crystal presence in Vitis riparia.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Seed micromorphology and calcium oxalate crystal characterization as taxonomic traits in selected species of the genus Impatiens L.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- In poor taste: leaf palatability traits are not correlated with aboveground enemy release.Oecologia · 2025Article
- Endocarp Morphology ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Elemental Screening and Nutritional Strategies of Gypsophile Flora in Sicily.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Anatomical, histochemical, and developmental approaches reveal the long-term functioning of the floral nectary in Tocoyena formosa (Rubiaceae).Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Silica and Selenium Nanoparticles Attract or Repel Scale Insects by Altering Physicochemical Leaf Traits.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Roles of oxalate-degrading bacteria in fungus-growing termite nests.Biodiversity data journal · 2024Article
- Unlocking the role of silicon against biotic stress in plants.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Review
- Comprehensive analysis of silicon impact on defense and metabolic responses in rice exposed to herbivory stress.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Review
- Osmoelectric siphon models for signal and water dispersal in wounded plants.Journal of experimental botany · 2023Article
- Tomato Oxalyl-CoA Synthetase Degrades Oxalate and Affects Fruit Quality.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris chromosome 8 shows significant association with geosmin concentration in table beet.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Article
- Influence of Silicon on Biocontrol Strategies to Manage Biotic Stress for Crop Protection, Performance, and Improvement.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Anatomy and Ultrastructure of Galls Induced byInsects · 2021Article
- Do calcium oxalate crystals protect against herbivory?Die Naturwissenschaften · 2021Article
- Regulation of Oxalate Metabolism in Spinach Revealed by RNA-Seq-Based Transcriptomic Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Calcium oxalate is the most abundant insoluble mineral found in plants and its crystals have been reported in more than 200 plant families. In the barrel medic Medicago truncatula Gaertn., these crystals accumulate predominantly in a sheath surrounding secondary veins of leaves. Mutants of M. truncatula with decreased levels of calcium oxalate crystals were used to assess the defensive role of this mineral against insects. Caterpillar larvae of the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua Hübner show a clear feeding preference for tissue from calcium oxalate-defective (cod) mutant lines cod5 and cod6 in choice test comparisons with wild-type M. truncatula. Compared to their performance on mutant lines, larvae feeding on wild-type plants with abundant calcium oxalate crystals suffer significantly reduced growth and increased mortality. Induction of wound-responsive genes appears to be normal in cod5 and cod6, indicating that these lines are not deficient in induced insect defenses. Electron micrographs of insect mouthparts indicate that the prismatic crystals in M. truncatula leaves act as physical abrasives during feeding. Food utilization measurements show that, after consumption, calcium oxalate also interferes with the conversion of plant material into insect biomass during digestion. In contrast to their detrimental effects on a chewing insect, calcium oxalate crystals do not negatively affect the performance of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris, a sap-feeding insect with piercing-sucking mouthparts. The results confirm a long-held hypothesis for the defensive function of these crystals and point to the potential value of genes controlling crystal formation and localization in crop plants.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.