Plants Have Life
- Lafyva
- May 30, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 22
Bose was the first to study the action of microwaves in plant tissues and the changes in the plant cell membrane potential. Through this study, he proved that plants are sensitive to pain and affection
Jagdish Chandra Bose & plant neurobiology
When Jagdish Chandra Bose, a renowned physicist, devoted himself entirely to research in the field of plant physiology post his superannuation at Presidency University, Kolkata, India (earlier known as Presidency College, Calcutta), it came as a surprise to many. The research on plant nervous system by JC Bose during this period was pioneering in nature, being recognized by recent plant biologists globally as the first in the field. His findings were so revolutionary at the time of their proclamation that these aroused disbelief and contradiction. Surprisingly, not many at that time took up such investigations and once accepted with reluctance, there was practically very little activity in the field for the next several decades. More than a hundred years later, recent advances in molecular biology, genomics, ecology and neurophysiology have led to renewed interest resulting in a flurry of activity, confirming most of Bose's observations. The present review describes this pioneering scientist's work and his immense contribution in the emergence of the discipline now designated as 'Plant Neurobiology'.
Plant neurobiology: an integrated view of plant signaling
Plant neurobiology is a newly focused field of plant biology research that aims to understand how plants process the information they obtain from their environment to develop, prosper and reproduce optimally. The behavior plants exhibit is coordinated across the whole organism by some form of integrated signaling, communication and response system. This system includes long-distance electrical signals, vesicle-mediated transport of auxin in specialized vascular tissues, and production of chemicals known to be neuronal in animals. Here we review how plant neurobiology is being directed toward discovering the mechanisms of signaling in whole plants, as well as among plants and their neighbors.
Intercellular and systemic trafficking of RNAs in plants
Plants have evolved dynamic and complex networks of cell-to-cell communication to coordinate and adapt their growth and development to a variety of environmental changes. In addition to small molecules, such as metabolites and phytohormones, macromolecules such as proteins and RNAs also act as signaling agents in plants. As information molecules, RNAs can move locally between cells through plasmodesmata, and over long distances through phloem. Non-cell-autonomous RNAs may act as mobile signals to regulate plant development, nutrient allocation, gene silencing, antiviral defense, stress responses and many other physiological processes in plants. Recent work has shed light on mobile RNAs and, in some cases, uncovered their roles in intercellular and systemic signaling networks. This review summarizes the current knowledge of local and systemic RNA movement, and discusses the potential regulatory mechanisms and biological significance of RNA trafficking in plants.
A considerable number of RNAs, but still a tiny portion of the mobile
RNAome, have been shown to act as active, mobile signals with
roles in coordinating plant growth, development and stress
responses6,8–10.
Plastid Evolution
Goethe saw in the changeableness of all the external characteristics of plants nothing but appearance; he drew the conclusion that the nature of the plant was not to be found in these characteristics, but had to be sought at a deeper level. The thought became more and more alive in him that it might be possible to develop all plants from a single one. This small conceit was destined to transform the science of botany, indeed the whole concept of the world: with it came the idea of evolution. Metamorphosis was to become the key to the whole alphabet of nature. But, whereas Darwin was to assume that external influences, like mechanical causes, work upon the nature of an organism and modify it accordingly, to Goethe the single alterations were various expressions of the archetypal organism (Urorganismus), which possesses within itself the capacity to take on manifold forms, and which at a particular time takes on that form which is best suited to the conditions of the external environing world. Goethe’s Urorganismus is a sort of Platonic idea in the eye of the created mind.
“Perhaps the elements of memory in plants are superficially treated,” he writes, “but at least there they are in black and white! Yet no one calls his friends or neighbors, no one shouts in a drunken voice over the telephone: Have you heard the news? Plants can feel! They can feel pain! They cry out! Plants remember everything!”
Tompkins, Peter; Bird, Christopher. The Secret Life of Plants (p. 72). Harper Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.
Tompkins, Peter; Bird, Christopher. The Secret Life of Plants (p. 113). Harper Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.
When Soloukhin began to telephone his own friends in excitement he learned from one of them that a prominent member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, working in Akademgorodok, the new town inhabited almost exclusively by research scientists on the outskirts of Siberia’s largest industrial center, Novosibirsk, had stated:
Don’t be amazed! We too are carrying out many experiments of this kind and they all point to one thing: plants have memory. They are able to gather impressions and retain them over long periods. We had a man molest, even torture, a geranium for several days in a row. He pinched it, tore it, pricked its leaves with a needle, dripped acid on its living tissues, burned it with a lighted match, and cut its roots. Another man took tender care of the same geranium, watered it, worked its soil, sprayed it with fresh water, supported its heavy branches, and treated its burns and wounds. When we electroded our instruments to the plant, what do you think? No sooner did the torturer come near the plant than the recorder of the instrument began to go wild. The plant didn’t just get “nervous”; it was afraid, it was horrified. If it could have, it would have either thrown itself out the window or attacked its torturer. Hardly had this inquisitor left and the good man taken his place near the plant than the geranium was appeased, its impulses died down, the recorder traced out smooth—one might almost say tender—lines on the graph.
McInnes says the radiations from some flowers are circular, others go from left to right, others from right to left. Some go up and down; others down and up; some go diagonally from left to right; others in the opposite direction. Some feel cold; others warm. But the same flower species always gives off the same radiation. McInnes says he has found it possible to transfer flower radiations to water, where the radiations will stay more or less indefinitely. He has some bottles with radiations still effective after twenty years. Each flower species has a time when its radiations can best be transferred to water, usually, though not always, when the flowers are at the peak of their maturity, which is also usually near a full moon.
Tompkins, Peter; Bird, Christopher. The Secret Life of Plants (p. 312). Harper Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.
Tompkins, Peter; Bird, Christopher. The Secret Life of Plants (p. 73). Harper Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.
Tompkins, Peter; Bird, Christopher. The Secret Life of Plants (p. 73). Harper Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.
"Zinc is frequently inadequate in vegan diets, as it is largely found in animal products. Plant sources of zinc include grains, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and soy, but it is much less bioavailable in these foods than in animal sources. Deficiency in this nutrient may be detrimental to bone health."
"If followed appropriately, vegetarian diets should not cause nutritional problems. However, vegan diets are much more nutritionally restrictive and may result in excessive weight loss."
"Vegan diets are low in vitamin B12, and other vegetarian diets are also somewhat lower than nonvegetarian diets. The reason for concern is that vitamin B12 deficiency causes not only a macrocytic megaloblastic anemia but, if long continued, serious, irreversible, neurologic and neuropsychiatric abnormalities. These are difficult to diagnose since the characteristic megaloblastic anemia of vitamin B12 deficiency is masked by high intakes of folic acid. Vitamin B12 is only found in products of animal origin, foods that contain microorganisms capable of incorporating the vitamin (nutritional yeast grown on vitamin B12-enriched media), and vitamin B12-fortified foods (B12-fortified soy milk, nut milk, and cereals). Individuals such as some vegans who often do not consume any of these foods are at special risk."
