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Researchers Discover New Plant "Language"

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-does-the-ficus-say? dept.

An anonymous reader writes A Virginia Tech scientist has discovered a potentially new form of plant communication, that allows them to share genetic information with one another. Jim Westwood, a professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science, found evidence of this new communication mode by investigating the relationship between dodder, a parasitic plant, and the flowering plant Arabidopsis and tomato plants to which it attaches and sucks out nutrients with an appendage called a haustorium. Westwood examined the plants' mRNA, the molecule in cells that instructs organisms how to code certain proteins that are key to functioning. MRNA helps to regulate plant development and can control when plants eventually flowers. He found that the parasitic and the host plants were exchanging thousands of mRNA molecules between each other, thus creating a conversation.

8 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. You've been working on that flower for a week now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    When is this feature going to be ready?

  2. Perseids by kruach+aum · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did anyone see the Perseids a couple of days ago? Did they look a bit green to anyone else, or was that just me?

  3. Communication? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Informative

    He found that the parasitic and the host plants were exchanging thousands of mRNA molecules between each other, thus creating a conversation.

    I think this is a little bit of a misuse / misunderstanding of the term / concept "communication".

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    1. Re:Communication? by Livius · · Score: 3, Informative

      The 'communication' is massively exaggerated. It's simply host manipulation, which is not at all new, and what they've discovered is the phenomenon of a kind of information transfer - they have not discovered any form of language beyond what they already knew about mRNA.

      To the scientists' credit, demonstrating host manipulation by a parasitic plant, with physical injection of mRNA as the mechanism, is pretty cool and maybe will lead to all sorts of interesting science and practical applications.

      Probably it is just that the 'journalist' does not understand the meaning of the word 'communication'.

    2. Re:Communication? by Rutulian · · Score: 3, Informative

      FYI, the scientists who did the work did not report it as "communication." As usual, the popular science writers were a bit over zealous in their choice of words.

      http://www.phdcomics.com/comic...

    3. Re:Communication? by joocemann · · Score: 2

      He found that the parasitic and the host plants were exchanging thousands of mRNA molecules between each other, thus creating a conversation.

      I think this is a little bit of a misuse / misunderstanding of the term / concept "communication".

      I think that if you were a cell biologist, you would get the message more clearly. And mRNA is *literally* a message written in a language. As that message is passed around and read, it's translation has effects. This is the basis of communication -- a message, received, having impact.

      The more geeked out you get on biology/molecular-biology, the more obvious it becomes that each life form is a set of instructions that yield an explosion of self interested, self-replicating, adaptive and protective technologies -- all so long as the basic needs of the life form are met or available enough.

      And so words like 'communication' can end up making perfect sense in a non anthropocentric way. Ultimately, the words make sense in describing biology, and lose their archaic contextual connotations.

  4. mRNA talks to people too by transporter_ii · · Score: 2

    Eating Plants May Change Our Cells - LiveScience

    Called microRNAs, these compounds are the movers and shakers of our cells, as scientists have found they turn up and down levels of human proteins. However, until now scientists thought these chemicals were only made and used inside our bodies, but new research shows that microRNAs from plants can enter the human body.

    Chen-Yu Zhang at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, found low levels of plant microRNAs from rice in human tissues. After testing the effects of these chemicals on mice, Zhang concluded microRNAs from plants could actually impact how the human body functions.

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  5. Re:DNA is not "communication" by joocemann · · Score: 2

    mRNA is not DNA. DNA is the instruction set. mRNA are the messenger (message) RNA transcript that is translated so as to communicate a desired piece of information/function from instructions to actions. If a book tells you how to make brownies, and you read it -- you would say that you received a communication from the author on how to make brownies.