Astronomy
Chemistry
Documentaries
Earth Sciences
Humanity
Life
Mathematics
Physics
Science Fiction
Technology
Chemistry
Documentaries
Earth Sciences
Humanity
Life
Mathematics
Physics
Science Fiction
Technology
Seismology Blog
The Nerd
Technology Blog
Bad Science
Educational Videos
FunMansion
Shoutfile
Hot Links
Media Bum
MilkandCookies
CollegeHumor
.
.
.
Articles / Nature
Telling apart relatives from
strangers is crucial in many animal species, helping them to share
precious resources or avoid inbreeding. Now it seems that plants can
perform the same trick.
Plants have already been shown to compete with others — of their own kind or of another species — when sharing space. For example, they sometimes choose to invest more energy in sprouting roots when they have nearby competition for water and nutrients.
Now, Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, have shown that plants grown alongside unrelated neighbours are more competitive than those growing with their siblings — ploughing more energy into growing roots when their neighbours don't share their genetic stock.
Plants 'know' more about their environment than they are often given credit for: they can sense the presence of neighbouring plants through changes in water or nutrients available to them or through chemical cues in the soil, and can adjust their own growth accordingly. "That plants have a secret social life is something well known to plant ecologists," says Dudley.
But the ability to recognize kin has not been demonstrated before.
To get their results, Dudley and File grew batches of a beach-dwelling plant, the Great Lakes sea rocket (Cakile edentula), in pots of four, either with specimens from the same maternal family or from several different families.
Those growing with strangers had a greater mass of roots after two months of growing than those sharing pots with siblings. The work appears online in Biology Letters1.
Family ties
How the plants work out who's who is still a mystery. Dudley suggests that a protein or chemical signal specific to each plant's family might be secreted and detected by other roots in the nearby area.
It is possible that plants use something similar to the immune system in animals to sense others around them, says Ariel Novoplansky, a plant biologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. In animals, kin recognition is often accomplished using specific immune proteins that disclose an individual's genetic make-up. If such specific molecules are being emitted from plant roots, and if the roots are close enough to each other, this might allow them to make similar distinctions.
But Novoplansky is quick to add that this is pure guess-work. He runs into the same problem in his own work, on how plants tell the difference between themselves and others. "At this point I cannot imagine a mechanism by which this could happen," he says. "Nothing of this sort has been found before."
Plants have already been shown to compete with others — of their own kind or of another species — when sharing space. For example, they sometimes choose to invest more energy in sprouting roots when they have nearby competition for water and nutrients.
Now, Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, have shown that plants grown alongside unrelated neighbours are more competitive than those growing with their siblings — ploughing more energy into growing roots when their neighbours don't share their genetic stock.
Plants 'know' more about their environment than they are often given credit for: they can sense the presence of neighbouring plants through changes in water or nutrients available to them or through chemical cues in the soil, and can adjust their own growth accordingly. "That plants have a secret social life is something well known to plant ecologists," says Dudley.
But the ability to recognize kin has not been demonstrated before.
To get their results, Dudley and File grew batches of a beach-dwelling plant, the Great Lakes sea rocket (Cakile edentula), in pots of four, either with specimens from the same maternal family or from several different families.
Those growing with strangers had a greater mass of roots after two months of growing than those sharing pots with siblings. The work appears online in Biology Letters1.
Family ties
How the plants work out who's who is still a mystery. Dudley suggests that a protein or chemical signal specific to each plant's family might be secreted and detected by other roots in the nearby area.
It is possible that plants use something similar to the immune system in animals to sense others around them, says Ariel Novoplansky, a plant biologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. In animals, kin recognition is often accomplished using specific immune proteins that disclose an individual's genetic make-up. If such specific molecules are being emitted from plant roots, and if the roots are close enough to each other, this might allow them to make similar distinctions.
But Novoplansky is quick to add that this is pure guess-work. He runs into the same problem in his own work, on how plants tell the difference between themselves and others. "At this point I cannot imagine a mechanism by which this could happen," he says. "Nothing of this sort has been found before."
Source: Nature
Comments
There are no comments on this item.
To comment on this item, please login or register.
Article:
Methane Bubbles in Arctic Seas Stir Warming Fears
Video: Epic Voyage of the Kon-Tiki
Methane Bubbles in Arctic Seas Stir Warming Fears (Article)
(Large amounts of a powerful greenhouse gas are bubbling up from a long-frozen seabed north of Siberia, raising fears of far bigger leaks that could stoke global warming, scientists said.)
Hits: 609
Rating: / 5
Category: Nature
Video: Epic Voyage of the Kon-Tiki
Epic Voyage of the Kon-Tiki (Video)
(Kon-Tiki is the Academy Award-winning film of an astonishing adventure, a journey spanning 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia by raft.)
Hits: 60
Rating: 2.75 / 5
Category: Documentaries
(The animals likely died of illness and malnutrition.)
Posted on July 26, 2010 at 12:46 pm in Nature.
0 Comments. 17 Hits.
(Plastiki, a 60 foot vessel buoyed by over 12,000 2-liter plastic bottles, sailed into the Sydney Harbor today, completing a 130 day, 8000 mile journey from San Francisco. )
Posted on July 26, 2010 at 8:50 am in Humanity.
0 Comments. 9 Hits.
(It was bright, fierce and thankfully short. A mysterious event in a distant galaxy has blasted our solar system with the most powerful burst of X-rays ever recorded, temporarily blinding an astronomical satellite.)
Posted on July 25, 2010 at 10:48 am in Astronomy.
0 Comments. 38 Hits.
(This Popular Science special feature from 1925 gives a rare insight into that generation’s hopes and dreams for the future. Click the pic below for the full image!)
Posted on July 23, 2010 at 8:51 am in Humanity.
0 Comments. 45 Hits.
(Researchers have found ways to use magnetic resonance to capture rays of visible light and route them around objects.)
Posted on July 23, 2010 at 8:51 am in Tech.
0 Comments. 42 Hits.
(Scientists, using three NASA satellites, have created a first-of-its-kind map that details the height of the world's forests.)
Posted on July 21, 2010 at 7:48 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 47 Hits.
(Two new fish species — with pancake-flat bodies, wiggling lures on their faces, and elbowed fins for “walking” on the seafloor — have been discovered in the path of spewing Gulf of Mexico oil.)
Posted on July 21, 2010 at 7:13 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 50 Hits.
(A strong earthquake of 6.7 magnitude today rattled coastal Alaska, authorities said, but no significant damage or tidal wave threat was reported. )
Posted on July 21, 2010 at 7:11 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 34 Hits.
(To elude predators, the octopus will change color in an instant and even alter its shape to look like other sea animals. Does its magic put the chameleon to shame?)
Posted on July 18, 2010 at 6:37 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 32 Hits.
(As the Gulf of Mexico entered a third day free of fresh oil from BP’s blown-out well, the government on Saturday extended a test that has so far shown no signs of damage in the 13,000-foot-deep hole.)
Posted on July 18, 2010 at 6:36 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 26 Hits.
(Scientists have discovered the first cometary planet, one with a huge tail, a stream of gas being ripped off by solar winds at 22,000 miles per hour. This jovian world is located 153 light-years from Earth.)
Posted on July 15, 2010 at 8:27 am in Astronomy.
0 Comments. 36 Hits.
(Gorillas apparently can play tag much like humans do, scientists now reveal. )
Posted on July 15, 2010 at 8:22 am in Nature.
0 Comments. 30 Hits.
(NASA Updates Shuttle Target Launch Dates For Final Two Flights )
Posted on July 14, 2010 at 9:29 am in Astronomy.
0 Comments. 31 Hits.
(Giant propeller-shaped structures have been discovered in the rings of Saturn and appear to be created by a new class of hidden moons, NASA announced Thursday. )
Posted on July 13, 2010 at 7:58 am in Astronomy.
0 Comments. 44 Hits.
(Researchers have discovered antibodies that can protect against a wide range of AIDS viruses and said they may be able to use them to design a vaccine against the fatal and incurable virus.)
Posted on July 13, 2010 at 7:58 am in Medicine.
0 Comments. 29 Hits.
| . |
. | . | . | . | . |
Copyright 2006-2009 Hubble Media