Plants: A Different Perspective


where leaves normally grow by reducing the amount of “auxin transport to the roots.” Once amount of auxin had been reduced in the roots, it accumulated “at the places in the young leaves where it is produced and roots began to emerge… where normally leaves would grow.”32


10. Roots rely on ion channels to respond to gravity, pressure, and other stimuli. MSL9 and MSL10, two proteins, govern ion channels in the Arabidopsis. “Under certain forces such as gravity, or touch” a mechanosensitive channel (a path “through the cell membrane”) opens when pressure within a cell is increased, permitting ions (e.g. calcium and potassium) to flow “into and out of the cell.” Other forces alleviate pressure within the cell. This closes the channel, stopping the flow of ions. Ultimately, opening/closing the mechanosensitive channel dictates the plant root’s response.33


11. Roots through the use of the RUS1 gene based on Arabidopsis studies detect UV-B light levels and pass “this information on to other parts of the plant responsible for growth and development.”34


12. At least four known species of plants exhibit self-awareness. For


example, the sea rocket, an angiosperm with diminutive lavender flowers can distinguish between plants that are related to it and those that are not related to it, giving preferential treatment to relatives (siblings). When the sea rocket detects unrelated plants (including those of the same species) growing within close proximity, it aggressively sprouts nutrient-grabbing roots to deprive them of minerals. If relatives are in close proximity, the sea rocket refrains from growing nutrient-grabbing roots towards their direction. Furthermore, plants have even been shown to differentiate between themselves and another even when the other is taken from a cutting sharing the exact sane DNA based on a study made at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel that involved pea plants. When a pea plant with two root systems was planted in a pot, they “grew significantly more and longer roots on the non-self side.” When pea plants with two roots and two shoots were physiologically separated and planted in the same pot, each grew additional and longer roots directed at the other. They recognized that the other’s root system belonged to another plant despite their identical DNA. This was likely due to “physiological coordination between roots belonging to the same plant… based on internal pulsing of hormonal and electrical signals [that] desynchronize[d] when the plants [were] separated.”35


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