Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
PLoS One. 2011;6(11):e23625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023625. Epub 2011 Nov 2.
Recent evidence demonstrates that plants are able not only to perceive and adaptively respond to external information but also to anticipate forthcoming hazards and stresses. Here, we tested the hypothesis that unstressed plants are able to respond to stress cues emitted from their abiotically-stressed neighbors and in turn induce stress responses in additional unstressed plants located further away from the stressed plants. Pisum sativum plants were subjected to drought while neighboring rows of five unstressed plants on both sides, with which they could exchange different cue combinations. On one side, the stressed plant and its unstressed neighbors did not share their rooting volumes (UNSHARED) and thus were limited to shoot communication. On its other side, the stressed plant shared one of its rooting volumes with its nearest unstressed neighbor and all plants shared their rooting volumes with their immediate neighbors (SHARED), allowing both root and shoot communication. Fifteen minutes following drought induction, significant stomatal closure was observed in both the stressed plants and their nearest unstressed SHARED neighbors, and within one hour, all SHARED neighbors closed their stomata. Stomatal closure was not observed in the UNSHARED neighbors. The results demonstrate that unstressed plants are able to perceive and respond to stress cues emitted by the roots of their drought-stressed neighbors and, via 'relay cuing', elicit stress responses in further unstressed plants. Further work is underway to study the underlying mechanisms of this new mode of plant communication and its possible adaptive implications for the anticipation of forthcoming abiotic stresses by plants.
最近的证据表明，植物不仅能够感知和适应性地响应外部信息，还能够预测即将到来的危害和压力。在这里，我们测试了一个假设，即未受压力的植物能够对来自其非生物压力邻居发出的压力信号做出反应，并反过来在距离受压力植物更远的额外未受压力植物中诱导应激反应。将豌豆植株置于干旱条件下，而其两侧的五株未受压力的相邻植株不受压力，它们可以交换不同的信号组合。在一侧，受压力的植物及其未受压力的邻居没有共享它们的根系体积（UNSHARED），因此仅限于通过地上部分进行交流。在另一侧，受压力的植物与其最近的未受压力的邻居共享一个根系体积，所有植物都与它们的直接邻居共享根系体积（SHARED），允许根和地上部分进行交流。在干旱诱导后 15 分钟，受压力的植物及其最近的 SHARED 邻居的气孔都明显关闭，在一个小时内，所有 SHARED 邻居都关闭了气孔。在 UNSHARED 邻居中没有观察到气孔关闭。结果表明，未受压力的植物能够感知和响应来自其干旱压力邻居根系发出的压力信号，并通过“中继提示”在进一步的未受压力植物中引发应激反应。目前正在进一步研究这种植物新的交流模式的潜在机制及其对植物预期即将到来的非生物压力的可能适应性影响。
