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Study Questions

1. What are “secondary metabolites” and what are the three biochemical pathways that produce them?
   
   
2. How do secondary metabolites differ from primary metabolites?
   
   
3. Discuss the main functions of secondary metabolites in plants and relate these functions to their sites of accumulation in the plant.
   
   
4. What are terpenes, chemically, and how are they synthesized? Give one example each of how mono- and triterpenes serve as feeding deterrents to insects.
   
   
5. What are the key intermediates of the phenolic biosynthesis pathway, and how is it this pathway regulated?
   
   
6. Compare and contrast the structures and functions of each of the following phenolic compounds: lignin, flavonoids, isoflavones, and tannins. Do any phenolic compounds play a role in primary metabolism or development in plants?
   
   
7. What precautions must be observed when harvesting celery, parsnips, and parsley? Why?
   
   
8. What is allelopathy and what secondary metabolites are involved?
   
   
9. What ecological role do tannins play in the plant?
   
   
10. How do alkaloids differ structurally from the other secondary compounds? Given their biological effects, how might they function ecologically?
    
    
11. What role does the poisonous gas HCN (hydrogen cyanide) play in plant defense?
    
    
12. What class of defensive compounds is produced mainly in the Brassicaceae?
    
    
13. What types of defense compounds would most likely occur in seeds?
    
    
14. What are “elicitors” and what role do they play in plant defense?
    
    
15. What is the molecular precursor of jasmonic acid (JA)? What two organelles participate in the JA pathway?
    
    
16. Discuss the signal transduction pathway by which jasmonic acid induces transcription of genes.
    
    
17. What is “systemin” and what role does it play in tomatoes and other plants?
    
    
18. Describe the signaling pathway whereby insect herbivory activates genes for proteinase inhibitors via jasmonic acid. What other stress responses are regulated by jasmonic acid?
    
    
19. What roles do volatile organic compounds play in plant defense?
    
    
20. What are “phytoalexins” and what roles to they play in plant defense?
    
    
21. What is the hypersensitive response and what chemical agents mediate it?
    
    
22. What genes are involved in the control of plant-pathogen recognition? What is meant by “gene-for-gene resistance”?
    
    
23. Discuss the nature of plant immune responses, such as “systemic acquired resistance” and “induced systemic resistance.”