Corn roots secrete toxins with an elegant-sounding name, pronounced benz-ox-ah-zin-oyeds. Although, in corn talk, benzoxazinoids are important enough to use shorthand, BXDs. This class of compounds is well-known among plant-herbivore scientists as a direct defense against the soil-dwelling beetle larvae that attack supporting roots like a behind-the-knee takedown. So, in addition to being biochemically fascinating, understanding and ramping up the ways in which plants can act