Trichome acylsugar defenses are equally effective against leaf-mining and free-living insects.

Trichome-produced acylsugars in wild tomatoes effectively inhibit leafminer larvae inside leaves, with translocation into mesophyll tissues confirmed.

• Why it matters: Understanding how epidermal defenses protect against internal herbivores like leafminers addresses a key gap in plant defense knowledge and could improve crop resistance strategies.
• What they did: Researchers used MALDI-MSI and stimulated Raman scattering microscopy to analyze metabolite distribution and identified the ABC transporter SpABCB5 as essential for acylsugar translocation into internal tissues.
• The result: Findings suggest that trichomes defend against both external and internal herbivores by depositing chemical defenses into internal tissues, offering new potential for breeding leafminer-resistant crops.