1) Mechanisms underlying rapid plant perception of insect attack: More than 1 million herbivorous insect species are known, and many lead to crop loss worldwide. Plants have evolved sophisticated defense mechanism to counteract insect attack very rapidly using calcium signals. The early events in plant perception of insect attack is largely unexplored and we have uncovered a major role for the calcium channel, Cyclic Nucleotide Gated Channels (CNGC19) in plant defense against herbivory (Meena et al., 2019, Plant Cell). We identified a key functional role for CNGC19 in plant defense against S. litura, via Ca2+-mediated defense signaling that modulates phytohormones (jasmonates) and secondary metabolites (glucosinolates). We are further characterizing the role of additional CNGCs in herbivory induced plant immunity. Majority of plant defense upon lepidopteran insect feeding is co-ordinated by jasmonic acid (JA/JA-Ile) dependent signaling cascade. We also study the role of JA-Ile as a possible damage signal and novel players involved in its biosynthesis and perception in plants, using R-Geco based imaging and Aequorin based forward genetic screen. We further use metabolomics to identify the plant response to herbivory and how alterations in early signaling genes impact secondary metabolite production.  We have identified novel metabolites involved in the interaction of Spodoptera with its host plants Tomato (Kundu et al., 2018, Planta) and Maize.