Acid growth protons (H ions) to be pumped out of the cell into the cell wall. As a result, the cell wall solution becomes more acidic. This activates expansin activity, causing the wall to become more extensible and to undergo wall stress relaxation, which enables the cell to take up water and to expand. Acid growth Acid growth refers to the ability of plant cells and plant cell walls to elongate or expand quickly at low (acidic) pH. This form of growth does not involve an increase in cell number. During acid growth, plant cells enlarge rapidly because the cell walls are
Plant tolerance to herbivory Using simulated herbivory allows for the control of environmental variables, but replicating natural herbivory is difficult, causing plants to respond differently from imposed and natural herbivory (Tiffin and Inouye 2000). Growing plants in the control environment of the greenhouse may also affect their response as it is still a novel environment to the plants. Even if the plots are grown in natural settings, the methods of excluding or including herbivores, such as using cages or pesticides, may also affect plant tolerance (Tiffin and Inouye 2000). Lastly, models have predicted that manipulated herbivory may actually result in less precise estimates of