Week 7 - Project Background
My project stemmed from a fascination with the botanica world. Earlier this year I was reading a book entitled The Hidden Life of Trees, which discusses how trees sense their environment. The language used in the book was so wondrous and fantastic, I began to ask myself, “could it be true, do plants really have senses?” Research revealed that plants do absolutely, one-hundred percent perceive their environment. Then, my question changed to how does a plant sense when I touch it, or what direction the light comes from.
In this project I seek to find; how the biological mechanics of vascular plants recognize and respond to sight, touch, taste/smell, and inter-kingdom/interspecies communication.
Initially, I formed a general hypothesis, that when a plant is in the presence of a force, or acted upon by a force, its leaves were the first responders who would trigger a reaction in the vascular system, sending signals to the central mechanical houses for the specific sense receptors.
I first identified the definitions of the language I used in my research. Understanding that plants do not have eyes and therefore cannot see images narrowed my search for what a plant could see. I knew it would have to be a basic concept, such as light. In other words, this expounded my search. I applied this same conception to the other sensations a plant can experience.
Biologically plants and animals have many parallels. They both contain many of the same biochemical compounds, such as calcium, and glutamate. Interestingly enough, glutamate is a neurotransmitter in animals. Similarly, in plants glutamate also functions as a transmitter. Plants do not have neurons or nervous systems, because of their lack of having a brain and all. Yet, the vascular system, which is just as complex, is the highway where plants send signals.
Light is detected by the tip of a plant within its leaves. There are many different chemical compounds that respond to light. Leaves contain stomata which is primarily used to intake CO2 and H2O, but also respond to light by increasing in number. Photoreceptors are also designed to respond to light, by flowering.
No matter how they respond, each chemical is responsible to travel the vascular system to the roots of the plant. The roots are the mechanical houses I mentioned before. Roots contain the directions for how a plant is to respond to their environment, similar to how the brain controls our responses. The responses are carried by the messenger proteins throughout the plant via the vascular system.
At this point in my search it seems I hypothesized correctly. Learning about the biochemical reactions plants have internally and externally reveals ecological matters infinitely more important than just, why a plant flowers. Such as knowing the concentrations of compounds in the atmosphere, like CO2. Or knowing what healing properties a plant contains which might be used in forming a medication to cure cancer.
I believe that plants are gifts which contain answers for many scientific questions pondered today. What if all this time there have been answers hidden in the leaves and we haven’t used the resources simply because we lacked understanding? I want to understand. I want to be apart of bettering the world, and one way to do this is to recognize the problems and provide solutions. It is vital to understand how plants respond biologically, the chain reactions from this study are limitless.
https://www.nature.com/articles/35075660.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880905004457?via%3Dihub
https://watermark.silverchair.com/
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Vascular_Transport_in_Plants/nAW5uIi_tQgC?hl=en&gbpv=0
https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1142998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O-0CVAgaEM
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0015379611802209
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeLSyU_iI9o
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/plant-hormones
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4165286/
https://www.dummies.com/education/science/biology/how-plants-send-signals-with-plant-hormones/
http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/secondary-plant-nutrients-calcium-magnesium-and-sulfur#:~:text=The%20primary%20function%20of%20calcium,normally%20not%20deficient%20in%20calcium.
https://bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/mpp.12204#:~:text=Four%20hormones%20primarily%20regulate%20plant,and%20abscisic%20acid%20(ABA).
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