Plant Sensing and Communication

Description

The news that a flowering weed—mousear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana)—can sense the particular chewing noise of its most common caterpillar predator and adjust its chemical defenses in response led to headlines announcing the discovery of the first “hearing” plant. As plants lack central nervous systems (and, indeed, ears), the mechanisms behind this “hearing” are unquestionably very different from those of our own acoustic sense, but the misleading headlines point to an overlooked truth: plants do in fact perceive environmental cues and respond rapidly to them by changing their chemical, morphological, and behavioral traits. In Plant Sensing and Communication, Richard Karban provides the first comprehensive overview of what is known about how plants perceive their environments, communicate those perceptions, and learn. Facing many of the same challenges as animals, plants have developed many similar capabilities: they sense light, chemicals, mechanical stimulation, temperature, electricity, and sound. Moreover, prior experiences have lasting impacts on sensitivity and response to cues; plants, in essence, have memory. Nor are their senses limited to the processes of an individual plant: plants eavesdrop on the cues and behaviors of neighbors and—for example, through flowers and fruits—exchange information with other types of organisms. Far from inanimate organisms limited by their stationary existence, plants, this book makes unquestionably clear, are in constant and lively discourse. Contents Acknowledgments 1 - Plant Behavior and Communication 1.1 - Plants and animals are different but also similar 1.2 - Working definitions 1.3 - Plant sensing and communication—organization of this book 2 - Plant Sensory Capabilities 2.1 - Plants sense their environments 2.2 - Plants sense light 2.3 - Chemical sensing 2.4 - Mechanical sensing—touch 2.5 - Plant sensing of temperature, electricity, and sound 3 - Plant Learning and Memory 3.1 - Do plants learn? 3.2 - Learning, memory, and light 3.3 - Learning, memory, and perception of chemicals, resources, pathogens, and herbivores 3.4 - Learning, memory, and touch 3.5 - Learning, memory, and cold 3.5 - Transgenerational memory 4 - Cues and Signals in Plant Communication 4.1 - The nature of cues and signals 4.2 - Plant competition—light and hormonal cues 4.3 - Cues used in plant defense 4.4 - Cues and signals emitted by plants that animals sense 5 - Plant Responses to Cues about Resources 5.1 - General characteristics of plant responses 5.2 - Plants forage for resources 5.3 - Integrating resource needs 6 - Plant Responses to Herbivory 6.1 - Induced responses as plant defenses 6.2 - Volatile signals and communication between ramets and individuals 6.3 - Indirect defenses against herbivores 6.4 - Visual communication between plants and herbivores 7 - Plant Communication and Reproduction 7.1 - Pollination and communication 7.2 - Seed dispersal and communication 8 - Microbes and Plant Communication 8.1 - Microbes are critical for plant success 8.2 - Plants recognize pathogens 8.3 - Infested plants attract the microbial enemies of their attackers 8.4 - Plants communicate with mycorrhizal fungi 8.5 - Plants communicate with N-fixing bacteria 9 - Plant Sensing and Communication as Adaptations 9.1 - Plant senses and emission of cues—adaptive traits? 9.2 - Case studies of adaptations 10 - Plant Sensing and Communication in Agriculture and Medicine 10.1 - Manipulating the sensing and communication process 10.2 - Manipulating resource acquisition and allocation 10.3 - Manipulating tolerance to abiotic stress 10.4 - Manipulating resistance to pathogens 10.5 - Manipulating resistance to herbivores 10.6 - Manipulating reproductive timing and effort 10.7 - As a source of medicines 10.8 - Plant sensing in the future of mankind References Index