Study finds that plants detect predators via vibrations then boost defenses. Plants can sense and react to temperature changes, harsh winds and even human touch. But can they hear? They have no specialized structure to perceive sound as we do, but a new study has found that plants can discern the sound of predators through tiny vibrations of their leaves -- and beef up their defenses in response. It is similar to how our own immune systems work. An initial experience with insects or bacteria can help plants defend themselves better in future attacks by the same predator. Although a mustard plant might not respond the first time it encounters a caterpillar, the next time it will boost the concentration of defense chemicals in its system that turn its once delicious leaves into an unsavory, toxic meal. Biologists from the University of Missouri have found that this readying process called "priming" can be triggered by sound alone. For one group of plants, the scientists carefully mimicked what a plant would "hear" in a real attack by vibrating a single leaf with the sound of a caterpillar chewing. The other group was left in silence. When later faced with a real caterpillar, the plants that heard chewing noises produced a greater amount of insecticide like chemicals than the silence group. They also seemed able to pick out these vibrations signaling danger, the playing of wind noises or insects mating calls did not trigger the same chemical boost. We can imagine applications of this where plants could be treated with sound or genetically engineered to respond to certain sounds of danger that would useful for agriculture, perhaps instead of the need of spraying. - Millet
Topic: Plants sense sounds of danger (Read 1437 times)