Plant Sensing and Communication

251 Pages·2015·1.305 MB·English

by  Richard Karban

Plant Sensing
and Communication
Interspecific Interactions
A Series Edited by John N. Thompson
Plant Sensing
Communication
Richard Karban
The University of Chicago Press | Chicago and London
Richard Karban is professor of entomology and a member of the Center for Population
Biology at the University of California, Davis. He is coauthor of Induced Responses to
Herbivory, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and How to Do Ecology:
A Concise Handbook.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 26467- 7 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 26470- 7 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 26484- 4 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226264844.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karban, Richard, author.
Plant sensing and communication / Richard Karban.
pages cm — (Interspecific interactions)
ISBN 978-0-226-26467-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-26470-7 (pbk. : alk.
paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-26484-4 (e-book) 1. Plant physiology. 2. Plant ecology. 3. Plant
behavior. 4. Plant communication. I. Title. II. Series: Interspecific interactions.
QK771.K37 2015
581.4—dc23
2014040550
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Plant Behavior and Communication 1
1.1 Plants and animals are different but also similar 1
1.2 Working definitions 3
1.3 Plant sensing and communication— organization
of this book 7
2 Plant Sensory Capabilities 9
2.1 Plants sense their environments 9
2.2 Plants sense light 10
2.3 Chemical sensing 17
2.4 Mechanical sensing— touch 23
2.5 Plant sensing of temperature, electricity,
and sound 26
3 Plant Learning and Memory 31
3.1 Do plants learn? 31
3.2 Learning, memory, and light 33
3.3 Learning, memory, and perception of chemicals,
resources, pathogens, and herbivores 33
3.4 Learning, memory, and touch 39
3.5 Learning, memory, and cold 40
3.5 Transgenerational memory 41
4 Cues and Signals in Plant Communication 45
4.1 The nature of cues and signals 45
4.2 Plant competition— light and hormonal cues 47
4.3 Cues used in plant defense 50
4.4 Cues and signals emitted by plants that
animals sense 59
5 Plant Responses to Cues about Resources 67
5.1 General characteristics of plant responses 67
5.2 Plants forage for resources 69
5.3 Integrating resource needs 78
6 Plant Responses to Herbivory 83
6.1 Induced responses as plant defenses 83
6.2 Volatile signals and communication between
ramets and individuals 91
6.3 Indirect defenses against herbivores 98
6.4 Visual communication between plants
and herbivores 105
7 Plant Communication and Reproduction 109
7.1 Pollination and communication 110
7.2 Seed dispersal and communication 122
8 Microbes and Plant Communication 129
8.1 Microbes are critical for plant success 129
8.2 Plants recognize pathogens 130
8.3 Infested plants attract the microbial enemies
of their attackers 132
8.4 Plants communicate with mycorrhizal fungi 133
8.5 Plants communicate with N- fixing bacteria 135
vi Contents
9 Plant Sensing and Communication as Adaptations 139
9.1 Plant senses and emission of cues— adaptive traits? 139
9.2 Case studies of adaptations 154
10 Plant Sensing and Communication in Agriculture
and Medicine 163
10.1 Manipulating the sensing and
communication process 163
10.2 Manipulating resource acquisition and
allocation 164
10.3 Manipulating tolerance to abiotic stress 165
10.4 Manipulating resistance to pathogens 166
10.5 Manipulating resistance to herbivores 169
10.6 Manipulating reproductive timing and effort 173
10.7 As a source of medicines 176
10.8 Plant sensing in the future of mankind 177
References 181
Index 231
Contents vii

Acknowledgments
I wrote this book to help me place my own work on plant
sensing and communication into perspective and to have a
project that would engage me once my kids left the house. I
thank my chair, Mike Parrella, for giving me the time to work
on this, and my wife, Mikaela Huntzinger, for encouraging
me and for many discussions about plant behaviors and a
million other things. Other people also influenced my views
on this subject, most notably my colleagues in animal be-
havior at UC Davis, Gail Patricelli, Andy Sih, Judy Stamps,
and Louie Yang. This manuscript was improved by Anurag
Agrawal, Mikaela Huntzinger, Graeme Ruxton, and John
Thompson. Christie Henry made the publication process
seem effortless.