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A Plant That Can Smell
BlueCup writes "The question of how a dodder finds a host plant has puzzled researchers. Many thought it simply grew in a random direction, with discovery of a plant to attack being a chance encounter. But the researchers led by Consuelo M. De Moraes found that if they placed tomato plants near a germinating dodder, the parasite headed for the tomato 80 percent of the time. And when they put scent chemicals from a tomato on rubber, 73 percent of the dodder seedlings headed that way. Turns out, it sniffs out it's prey."
But the researchers led by Consuelo M. De Moraes found that if they placed tomato plants near a germinating dodder, the parasite headed for the tomato 80 percent of the time. And when they put scent chemicals from a tomato on rubber, 73 percent of the dodder seedlings headed that way. Turns out, it sniffs out it's prey.
See, now I would have thought that it would have been the tomatoes that made the first strike...
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
A dodder is also known as a Cuscuta.
Be relentless!
My dodder has no nose.
How does it smell?
Terrible!
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I was hiking with my parents in the Shining Rock Wildnerness, an area in western North Carolina. Part of the wilderness was burned out sometime in the 1920's and the burn formed a long lasting grassland along several peaks. We hiked it sometime in the early 90's and it was the first time I saw dodder. It was this strange mat of oranged colored leafless vines, much like this growing on a particularly plant (very similar to what is in the photograph, I believe). The strange thing is that we had hiked this trail over many years and had never seen this before. So we wondered at first if it were some new invasive species from elsewhere. Turns out that this was native to the area, but for whatever reason it never had grown this prolifically before. Definitely one of the strangest plants I've ever run across.
The Flying Speghetti Monster is seeking out holy tomato sauce! I believe I belieeeeeve!
Table-ized A.I.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=6160709
Even *single-cell* flagellates have what can be considered a rusimentary sense of smell, and the capability of changing their locomotion in order to lead them to food. That sort of ability is present all the way up through the multicellular ladder, and "smell" (or response to airborne chemical signals) have been well-known for quite some time in plants.
Frankly, I'm susprised that they didn't start out with an assumption that smell was involved.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Smell isn't anything more than detecting fairly dilute chemicals
in the air. The fact that some species of plant have evolved to
perform very specific kinds of chemical detection to ensure their
survival doesn't seem surprising to me. Plants grow towards the
light - why not towards other things that are essential for their
survival.
Well, of course it's slowly, it takes a very long time to say anything in Old Entish.
Hmmm, nice that the article doesn't mention the actual author of the paper (published in Science). Also not surprisingly, the actual paper doesn't talk about 'smell'. Oh and for the person going on about sample size, of course the paper gives sample sizes.
6 4.pdf
Here's the abstract:
Volatile Chemical Cues Guide Host Location and Host Selection by Parasitic Plants
Justin B. Runyon, Mark C. Mescher, Consuelo M. De Moraes*
The importance of plant volatiles in mediating interactions between plant species is much debated. Here, we demonstrate that the parasitic plant Cuscuta pentagona (dodder) uses volatile cues for host location. Cuscuta pentagona seedlings exhibit directed growth toward nearby tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) and toward extracted tomato-plant volatiles presented in the absence of other cues. Impatiens (Impatiens wallerana) and wheat plants (Triticum aestivum) also elicit directed growth. Moreover, seedlings can distinguish tomato and wheat volatiles and preferentially grow toward the former. Several individual compounds from tomato and wheat elicit directed growth by C. pentagona, whereas one compound from wheat is repellent. These findings provide compelling evidence that volatiles mediate important ecological interactions among plant species.
And here's the actual paper for those with access to Science articles:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/313/5795/19
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.