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Plants eavesdropping on each other
Published: 13 June 2019
The way plants communicate with each other can play a role for how different variety mixtures resist damage from insects, how quickly the plants grow and how efficiently they use resources. This was recently shown in a doctoral thesis by Iris Dahlin at the Department of Plant Production Ecology, SLU. A well composed variety mixture can thus reduce the need for both chemical pesticides and plant nutrients.
Plants continuously secrete volatile chemical substances and other plants nearby can intercept these signals. Most of the previous studies have focused on what happens when a plant is attacked by pests and how this can make the nearby plants preparing their own defense before they themselves are attacked. Iris Dahlin has in her dissertation managed to prove that the plants also communicate with each other in other contexts.
"You can say that the plants are eavesdropping on each other, plant communication is more of a general occurrence than that they only react when someone gets injured," says Iris and adds: “the plants adapt to their neighbors, there is less competition and they can become more resource efficient which can reduce the need for nutrition”.
Adapts to the neighbors
In the dissertation, Iris shows that barley plants via volatile substances receive information about how their neighbors grow and that they could adapt their own growth accordingly. The plants are preparing for upcoming competition and in field trials some varieties adapted to match their neighbors while others did not.
The knowledge of plant volatile signals can have several practical applications in the future. Variety mixtures can be designed to better cope with pests, grow better and withstand extreme weather such as drought or large amounts of rain.
“We also see that the plant breeders can take into account the communication of the plants in order to produce varieties that ‘talk’ even better with each other”.
Could one imagine that these substances will be added artificially in the future as well?
“Yes in theory, but it is extremely complex with many substances involved, so the best thing is to let the plants handle the communication, and for us to give them the best conditions instead”, says Iris. Plant communication through volatile substances adds a dimension to consider in future development of strategies for sustainable agriculture.