Plants Use Newly Discovered Language To Communicate?
Friday, August 15, 2014 - 01:40
in Biology & Nature
A scientist has discovered a potentially new form of plant communication, one that allows them to share an extraordinary amount of genetic information with one another. Professor Jim Westwood examined the relationship between a parasitic plant, dodder, and two host plants, Arabidopsis and tomatoes. In order to suck the moisture and nutrients out the host plants, dodder uses an appendage called a haustorium to penetrate the plant. Westwood previously broke new ground when he found that during this parasitic interaction, there is a transport of RNA between the two species. RNA translates information passed down from DNA, which is an organism’s blueprint. read more