Posted By Jobin (Group 3)
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Plant Behavior
So this is kinda different but I found it interesting on how plants actually behave towards other plants that are their siblings as well as plants that are "neighbors". The article from science daily describes how plants interact differently from their siblings rather than neighbors. Studies have show that if the plant is surrounded by relatives then they interact more with the relatives. However, if the plant is in an environment where it is surrounded by neighbors, then the plant not only would interact with the neighboring plant, but will outperform than a plant interacting with their family. This interaction may have evolutionary effects because when the plant interacts with its neighbors , resources are then divided more evenly and efficiently and their is less competition . Evolution may have it that these plants then chose to interact more with neighbors rather than their siblings since there is a larger gain in the overall process. A change in studying plants needs to occur to study this behavior. Right now what is being studied is the result of the interactions but not the intermediate steps within it. without these steps , we won't know what exactly is occurring.
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Hi Jobin,
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting. I did not know plants could communication. I just had a question. When you talk about interactions between plants, what is it exactly. I can only picture animals interacting and not plants. How do they fight for resources? The plant that sucks up the most nutrients win? Do they defend their territory?
Just a few questions that arose to me when I was reading your blog.
Posted by Whitney Huynh
This is pretty interesting, as I have never heard of this before. A few questions that popped up were – what is the mechanism for this interaction? (Do scientists even know?) Specifically how do the plants send a message and receive a message? If anything, I would imagine that the plants communicate chemically because plants do not really have the ability to move. How exactly does a plant recognize if its neighbor is a relative or not? Plants are so different from animals and I find out hard to imagine how plants are able to recognize relatives without a “brain”.
ReplyDeletePosted by James Lin
Well, this is very interesting. I wonder what kind of "communication" is going on that signals a plant to "outperform" when it's surrounded by neighbors that are distant relatives rather than other offspring from the same parent. I've taken a few plant courses, and my best guess is that this is a hormonal process, in which the plant reaction is simply a chemical reaction to its surroundings or the light levels. Because the direct chemical interaction between a plant's reception of a "signal" and its physiological response, I doubt we could call this a "behavior" in the traditional sense. It seems more like a logical progression of falling dominos than anything else.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jonathan Flash
This is really fascinating to see that plants as well as animals tend to recognize their kin. I would never have thought that plants could do this because they do not have a brain. I wonder what kind of communication methods they use to determine their relationship between other plants. Do they have chemoreceptors or mechanoreceptors that transmit signals to show their relationship? There should defiantly be more research into this field.
ReplyDeletePosted by Noelle Kellicker
Plants communicate too! I'm sort of confused about what interaction you are talking about. Do mean that the plants are releasing chemical signals that stimulate each other or are they exchanging nutrients or whatever it is you mean by interaction? I also found it interesting that they react with neighbors over kin. It almost seems kind of selfish of the plant to help out a stranger rather than its brother.
ReplyDeleteposted by Nick Gast
I think this is the first I have ever heard of plants that interact differently depending on whether or not they are siblings. I wonder what the biochemistry is behind this system. There must be some sort of signalling between them chemically. This kind of sounds like the trees that are able to move inch by inch in a direction. I do not remember the species though. Really interesting topic though!
ReplyDeletePosted by Caroline Adams 11/11/11 (sooo cool!!)
I guess plants don't experience sibling rivalry as much as we do then huh? It does make sense advances in fitness would be needed when competing with neighbors, as the plant needs to be able to outperform in case invading species show up in an area, especially if it's a monoculture. You do have some grammatical errors, so I would re-read your post before publishing next time.
ReplyDeletePosted by Austin Gray
So a big question everyone was having was how did the plants communicate. I did some research and a lot of the communication is coming from the roots. They are able to communicate and figure out which plants are their kin and which are neighbors via the root system, similar to how plants interact with different fungi. They also are able to make a warning system for other plants in the area. The roots are able release chemicals that contains carbon to interact with other roots.
ReplyDeleteJobin Oommen
This was a very interesting post and I never knew this was going on in the plant world. Do you think this has anything to do with the genetics and the plant recognizing their siblings from their neighbors? What exactly are the interactions being observed with these plants?
ReplyDeletePosted by Ryan Dulmaine
This is very surprising and has sparked obvious interest. When you said that plants "communicated" I immediately thought it was through means of chemical interaction. It was interesting to find out that this is also done via the root system. I had no idea!! Now my question for you is... is this communication observed only in certain specific plant types, if so, which one's? Or is this a universal characteristic of all plants? It would be interesting to find out more about these biochemical interactions in plants.
ReplyDeleteComment by Jose Mijangos