Assertion:  Hairy leaves in several plants are associated with resistance to insect pests.

Reason:  High aspartic acid, low nitrogen, and sugar content in maize leads to resistance to maize

Assertion and reason both are true but reason is not the correct explanation of assertion.

The correct answer is Option (2) -Assertion and reason both are true but reason is not the correct explanation of assertion.

The assertion and reason both describe different mechanisms of insect pest resistance in plants. While the assertion focuses on morphological characteristics (hairy leaves), the reason explains biochemical characteristics (high aspartic acid, low nitrogen, and sugar content in maize). Therefore, both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion.

Insect resistance in host crop plants may be due to morphological, biochemical or physiological characteristics. Hairy leaves in several plants are associated with resistance to insect pests, e.g, resistance to jassids in cotton and cereal leaf beetle in wheat. In wheat, solid stems lead to non-preference by the stem sawfly and smooth leaved and nectar-less cotton varieties do not attract bollworms. High aspartic acid, low nitrogen and sugar content in maize leads to resistance to maize stem borers.