New research shows that plants can communicate with each other in the same "language" when they are attacked by pests. An article about this was published in the issue of the journal Current Biology.
Research shows that plants can exchange messages using chemicals known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Some plants can emit them when attacked by pests, while others are able to capture these substances and "prepare" for an attack.
Scientists worked with Solidago altissima, a species of goldenrod, a plant that is widespread throughout much of Canada, the United States of America and northern Mexico. The authors of the work studied how this plant species reacts to the influence of the leaf beetle. A big find is what one of the researchers, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, André Kessler, calls "open channel communication." It turned out that when plants are attacked, their smells carried by VOCs become very similar. The study found that nearby plants respond to chemical warning signals and prepare for a perceived threat, such as pests.
“So they kind of start to speak the same language or use the same warning signs to freely share information,” Kessler notes. - The exchange of information becomes independent of how closely they are related to each other. We very often see that when plants are attacked by pathogens or herbivores, they change their metabolism. But this is not an accidental change - in fact, these chemical and metabolic changes help them deal with pests. This is very similar to our immune system: although plants do not have antibodies like we do, they can fight a threat using volatile compounds."
Such conclusions can find practical application all over the world. According to scientists, they are already working on a system called push-pull ("push-pull"). It is being developed in Kenya by the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology, and is based on manipulating the flow of information to combat a pest in corn fields.
