Seems that we don’t know that much. The world of plants never ceases to amaze humanity. At first glance, a plant is a primitive organism, but that’s merely an illusion. Plants exist in a somewhat different time-space that is difficult for us to grasp. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that everything is much more complex.
When observing a caterpillar, relentlessly destroying the leaves of a red alder, it seems defenseless. However, scientists have found that this is far from the truth. The more caterpillars devour the plant, the more it releases toxins, thereby regulating the number of parasites. A plant could destroy all the caterpillars, but this happens quite rarely. Why? From the caterpillars emerge butterflies that are essential for pollination. The symbiosis of various elements in nature is astonishing in its complexity and brilliance.
But that’s not all. The red alder can warn other trees about the level of danger. In the case of an active caterpillar attack, neighboring trees also increase their toxin levels. Incredibly, it turns out that plants can communicate with each other. Scientists are still pondering how this occurs. The red alder is just one of many examples. A fascinating specimen is mountain sage, which can increase its toxicity when it is grazed by a herd of mountain goats. Information about the aggressors spreads quickly among sage bushes and their surroundings.
Moreover, scientists have discovered that communication, in a certain sense, is individual and occurs through the release of chemical elements. Some specimens are braver and signal danger only in critical situations, while others, true cowards, begin to emit alarm signals even with slight touch or damage. An interesting fact is that over time, the rest of the group begins to completely ignore the cowards due to an excessive number of false alarms. These facts are simply incredible and make us look at plants from a different perspective.
Plants’ Sensation of Touch
People have long noticed that plants can respond to touch. Touch is an extremely complicated biophysical process. Although humanity knows quite a bit about how Homo sapiens perceives touch, certain aspects remain a mystery. What about plants? It seems that there are just as many mysteries here.
A number of experiments confirm that plants undeniably feel touch. In response to touch, plants can change shape, slow down or accelerate certain processes, or even modify their own genome. For instance, Arabidopsis Thaliana, which you can see at picture below.
All of this allows plants to survive in a complex environment while remaining immobile.
But how exactly do plants perceive and respond to stimuli? How does this happen? Answers to these questions revolve around electric waves. Over the past centuries, a number of researchers have been working on solving this mystery. The latest discoveries in this field are simply astonishing.
The researchers proposed an idea: plants send electric impulses, and it would be beneficial to visualize how these impulses spread through the plant. To do this, they decided to use calcium, which is present in plant cells. Calcium itself is not a conductor of electric current, but its level significantly increases when current passes through a cell. Thus, it can be used as a monitoring element.
Following this, the scientists took a jellyfish gene responsible for fluorescence, modified it to be sensitive to calcium, and implanted this gene into the plant. What happened next exceeded any expectations. It turned out that plants are much more sensitive than we previously thought. During touch to a leaf, all elements around the contact point illuminated instantly.
However, if the leaf is damaged, the corresponding information spreads throughout the entire plant immediately. It’s better to see it once than to hear about it a hundred times.
Yet the surprises don’t end there. If plants can respond to stimuli through the spread of electrical impulses, it naturally raises the question of whether there are more facts to suggest that plants possess elements of a nervous system.
The Nervous System of Plants?
Glutamate, or glutamic, acid is an amino acid that plays an important role as a neurotransmitter in the nervous systems of humans and animals. It supports the transmission of excitatory signals between neurons in the brain. It turns out that if you place glutamate on a tweezers and inject it into a plant leaf, the electric impulse spreads throughout the plant at an incredible speed. This indicates the presence of glutamic acid in plant cells.
This example vividly illustrates how certain important and beneficial properties are replicated by nature among different biological species. The presence of neurotransmitters in plants raises many questions. On the one hand, there are all signs of a nervous system’s presence; on the other hand, plants do not have nerves or a central processing system for electric impulses – a brain. However, should we compare our nervous system with that of plants? I don’t think so.
What if a plant’s nervous system is simply different – say, decentralized? What if a plant is, in fact, one large brain? Just a few years ago, octopuses also seemed primitive to us. But today, we marvel at their unique decentralized nervous system. An octopus has a central brain but also possesses large autonomous nerve clusters in each tentacle. This system allows octopuses to solve complex problems and even use tools.
The Importance of Plant Research
I believe that the electric processes in plants receive far too little attention. Research in this area is just as important as that in genetics. Understanding how plants perceive and communicate will allow humanity to lift the veil on many mysteries regarding how we ourselves function.
After all, it was plants that were the pioneers on Earth, not humans. It was plants that conquered the land millions of years ago, creating the conditions for the emergence of animals and humans, not the other way around. The notion that plants are primitive organic elements unworthy of attention is completely incorrect.
The true world of plants is full of wonders and mysteries that await exploration. By studying these intricate systems, we can gain valuable insights not only into the lives of plants but also into the broader understanding of life on Earth. The more we learn about the intelligence and capabilities of plants, the more we realize their essential role in the ecosystem and our interconnectedness with the natural world.
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Thank you for your attention, Lumin Hopper
