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When the plants are injured, they send warning signals that propagate to other leaves, causing the alarm and activating the defense mechanisms of undamaged areas. Now, researchers have captured this explosion of activity in a series of fascinating videos that help explain the delicate subject of "plant intelligence".
"The factories seem to be so smart – they do the right thing at the right time, they perceive a huge amount of environmental information and treat it," says Simon Gilroy, who runs the Botany Lab at the University of Wisconsin. -Madison "But they do not have the brains, the information processing unit that we think should be needed to make these really elegant calculations."
To see how the plants communicate internally, researchers at Gilroy's lab genetically modified the plants with a green fluorescent protein originally derived from jellyfish. This brilliant protein can be linked to specific substances, so the team can see how the different chemicals inside the plants react to the stimuli.
After an attack, such as a caterpillar that stings a leaf, the plants release an amino acid called glutamate. This in turn activates the calcium levels in the rest of the plant, which triggers defense mechanisms to help prevent further damage. Some plants release volatile compounds to repel attacking insects or even attract other insects that attack plant molesters. Cotton plants, when damaged by moth larvae, attract wasps that feed on moths.
Common theme
For this study, the Gilroy team combined the fluorescent protein with another protein that binds to calcium, and the result is a mutant plant that shines when calcium levels increase. (See photos of shining plants.)
When they examined the injured plants under a microscope, they could see in real time the signal spreading in minutes through the plant. Similar research on plant communication has shown that glutamate and calcium are an integral part of this process, but Gilroy and his lab are the first to show this activity in such detail.
Glutamate and calcium both play a similar role in all walks of life, including humans.
"Your heart is beating because there are calcium flashes inside cells that trigger muscle contractions," Gilroy says. "So you can find the theme of calcium signaling in biology
However, science is only beginning to understand how plants use these common biological tools to communicate, says Gilroy. Studies like this could therefore contribute to long-term applications for speaking plant language.
"If we know enough about how plants preemptively trigger their natural defenses, we could perhaps do it on demand," he says. "In that case, we could go, okay, there's an indication of a pest outbreak, I'm going to light these plants to be already defended against this pest before that becomes a problem."
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