Insect egg‐killing: a new front on the evolutionary arms‐race between brassicaceous plants and pierid butterflies

What is it about?

Plants can act in time and combat plant-feeding (herbivorous) insects even before they cause damage by killing their eggs. It remains largely unknown how egg-killing traits have contributed to the plants’ arms-races with their herbivores. We explored an egg-killing leaf necrosis in the important crucifer plant family and its specialist butterflies and show that the necrosis mainly appears in cabbage crop-relatives and is specifically triggered by eggs of cabbage butterflies adapted to the plants' toxins. Butterflies might escape from the plants’ egg-killing response by depositing eggs in clusters or on flowers.

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