Link: Plants do some very clever things.
Biologists are just now coming to the conclusion that plants are kind of intelligent, in a green growing thing kind of way:
To make smart choices, plant genes must take in multiple cues from their environment – light, temperature, moisture, gravity, etc. – and assemble them into a meaningful whole. That’s a rudimentary version of the way an animal’s brain integrates various signals from its eyes, ears, fingers and stomachs.
The article cites several examples of intelligent activity. I found this one kind of interesting:
When a plant is blown by the wind, flipped over or its roots are disturbed by an animal, specific genes responsible for keeping the plant stable” and roots growing respond very quickly, often within one minute of the disturbance…
I personally believe in talking to plants — I stand over mine in an intimidating manner and yell, “Grow!!! Grow!!!”. But after reading this article, I think I’ll give that up and just start blowing on them.
Full Article:
DuluthNewsTribune.com
Posted on Mon, Nov. 08, 2004
Click here to find out more!
Scientists: Plants do some very clever things
By ROBERT S. BOYD
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON – People don’t usually associate intelligence with weeds or cabbages. But plant scientists, taking advantage of new genetic information, have discovered a surprising level of what looks like brainy behavior in the vegetable world.
“It’s amazing what plants can do,” said Johanna Schmitt, a plant geneticist at Brown University in Providence, R.I
Plants have to do clever things since they’re stuck in place and must find ways to cope with enemies and hard times. “They can’t just walk away,” said Leslie Sieburth, a researcher at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
To compensate for their immobility, plants have genes strung along long threads of DNA that direct them to perform some remarkable feats. Though plant behavior may seem obvious to farmers and gardeners, it’s only recently that biologists are learning exactly how they work, down at the level of individual genes and molecules.
Researchers have identified genes that help plants recognize when days are growing longer or shorter. Other genes force a plant to sit through a cold winter before allowing it to blossom. Another maintains a 24-hour internal clock. Some genes help plants “remember” the experiences of their “parents,” the plants whose seeds gave them birth, Schmitt said.
Plants use color and smell to lure insects that spread their pollen or to repel hungry predators. Plants aren’t above using dirty tricks, such as attracting wasps to lay their eggs inside caterpillar larvae so the caterpillars won’t grow up to eat them.
Some plants can solve math and logic problems of a sort. They calculate the ratio of two different hues of red light to decide when there’s too much shade and they need to grow taller. When roots sense that water is short, a gene called BYPASS1 sends a signal to the stem telling it to produce fewer, smaller leaves.
“This is a logical response to drought, because leaves are the major place where water is lost,” Sieburth said.
Of course, plant talents are a far cry from animal – not to mention human – mental powers. Plants don’t have a brain or central nervous system. They don’t have language, emotions, fall in love or suffer the pangs of guilt.
Researchers expect their work will have practical value for farmers and home gardeners.
Judith Roe, a plant geneticist at Kansas State University in Manhattan, said understanding how plants synchronize their flowering with the state of the environment will help researchers predict and manage the effect of climate change on future crops.
“Ongoing climate change is already influencing flowering time in many plants,” Schmitt said. “Many British wildflowers are now blooming earlier than they did 50 years ago.”
“In flowering plants, the time of flowering is probably the most critical period in their life cycle,” Roe said. “At this point, they are particularly vulnerable to environmental stresses.”
To figure out how plant genes work, the National Science Foundation this fall awarded a $5 million research grant to an international team of scientists headed by Schmitt. Their task is to identify the molecular mechanisms by which plants know when to grow and when to flower – two distinct stages of vegetable life that must be kept apart.
A gene called FRIGIDA, for example, prevents plants from flowering prematurely, before winter has passed. “If the gene is faulty, it may flower too soon,” Schmitt said.
“Successful reproduction and the development of seeds and fruits depend on flowering at the right time,” said Jo Putterill, a biologist at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
To make smart choices, plant genes must take in multiple cues from their environment – light, temperature, moisture, gravity, etc. – and assemble them into a meaningful whole. That’s a rudimentary version of the way an animal’s brain integrates various signals from its eyes, ears, fingers and stomachs.
The messages that tell a plant it’s time to blossom turn on several series of genes, called “pathways,” which lead to other master genes controlling the roots, stems and leaves.
“The balance of signals from these pathways is integrated by a common set of genes to determine when flowering occurs,” Putterill said.
NASA is also interested in plant genetics. The space agency is financing research at North Carolina State University in Raleigh to study how plants will respond to changes in mechanical force and gravity on a spaceship, the moon or Mars. Researchers have identified 64 genes that respond to gravity, according to Heike Winter Sederoff, a botanist at N.C. State.
“When a plant is blown by the wind, flipped over or its roots are disturbed by an animal, specific genes responsible for keeping the plant stable” and roots growing respond very quickly, often within one minute of the disturbance, Sederoff reported.
Schmitt said scientists still don’t understand how plants accomplish many of their clever tricks. “There are huge unanswered questions,” she said. “That’s what the National Science Foundation project is all about.”
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