Communication in Plants Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life

About this book

Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization - from molecules up to ecological communities. In this book, plants are presented as intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing.

Authors from diverse backgrounds such as molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, as well as ecology treat the most important aspects of plant communication, including the plant immune system, abilities of plants to recognize self, signal transduction, receptors, plant neurotransmitters and plant neurophysiology. Further, plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The similarities in animal and plant neuronal/immune systems are discussed too. All these hidden aspects of plant life and behaviour will stimulate further intense investigations in order to understand the communicative plants in their whole complexity.

Contents

From the contents:The green plant as an intelligent organism * Charles Darwin and the plant root apex * The role of root apices in shoot growth regulation * Signals and targets triggered by self-incompatibility in plants * Signal perception and transduction in plant innate immunity * Nitric oxide involvement in incompatible plant-pathogen interactions * Neurotransmitters, neuroregulators and neurotoxins in plants * GABA and GHB neurotransmitters in plants and animals * Touch-responsive gene expression * Oscillations in plants * Electrical signals in long-distance communication in plants * Electrophysiology and phototropism * Signals and signalling pathways in plant wound responses * Root exudation and rhizosphere biology: multiple functions of a plant secondary metabolite * Communication between undamaged plants by volatiles: the role of allelobiosis.

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