When Plants Cry for Help, Predator Bugs Answer
Plants have a big perpetual problem: they need to protect themselves from pest, but they can move a centimeter. So how do they do it? In the case of the wild tobacco plant (Nicotiana attenuata), when a caterpiller start eating them, they can release compounds that attract predator bugs too eat the caterpillars. Those compounds are called Green leaf Volatiles, also known as GLVs. GLVs are also found in freshly mowed grass. When a caterpillar eats the plant, its saliva causes changes in the GLVs that the tobacco plant releases, then attracting predators. This information was found out recently in a study done by a science institute in Amsterdam.
I find this amusing, that even in nature without humans, plants have a way to "tattle tell," and in nature the punishment for being caught is death. I always thought that plants where dumb, defenseless organisms, but I guess that this proves me wrong. I wonder if this system could ever fail, possibly if the tobacco plant doesn't have enough of a specific type of GLV that attracts predators.
Sources
"When Plants Cry for Help, Predator Bugs Answer." EurekAlert! - Science News. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2010.
I like the use of the words 'tattle tell', that made me laugh. And yes you are right, punishment in nature seems to always be death.
ReplyDeleteI don't get why you put in "But they can move a centimetre" it just makes no sense.