Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Dr. Robert Dearth

Second Advisor

Dr. Megan Keniry

Third Advisor

Dr. Rupesh Kariyat

Abstract

Chapter 1: Plants have a wide array of defenses against herbivores and hence they must confer trade-offs between growth and defense related traits. By using Solanum as a model genus, the major plant defense fitness trade-off hypotheses are reviewed in this chapter along with their assumptions and examples.

Chapter 2: This chapter provides an overview of the enormous intra-specific diversity in trichome morphology in tomato, Solanum lycopersicum. Also, the trichome sub-types are analyzed for the variations in density and dimensions in 10 varieties of tomato by using desktop scanning electron microscope.

Chapter 3: This chapter examines the functional consequences of intra-specific diversity of trichome traits in tomato on the feeding, growth, and development of Solanaceae specialist herbivore, Manduca sexta.

Chapter 4: This chapter compares the trichome efficiency of three different methods used to extract trichomes from plant leaf surfaces and provides pros and cons for each of them using 5 plant species that vary in their trichomes.

Chapter 5: This chapter provides the overview of major findings of my research and suggests the future directions in the field of interactions between plant physical defenses and the insect herbivores.

Comments

Copyright 2023 Satinderpal Kaur. All Rights Reserved.

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