Living soil stores defensive memories against herbivores.

Foliar herbivory creates a soil-borne defensive legacy in living soil that enables undamaged plants grown in the same soil to recruit parasitoid wasps.

• Why it matters: Plants need durable defenses, but how herbivore experiences translate into protective effects for later, undamaged plants is unclear.
• What they did: Gao et al. show plant-soil feedback: after foliar herbivory, subsequent undamaged plants grown in the same living soil recruit parasitoid wasps.
• The result: This soil-borne memory mechanism suggests ecological pest management strategies that leverage living soil to prime plant defenses against herbivores.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.