LONDON: Although plants do not feel hunger or pain like animals, they are able to use signals that are linked with animals when they are under stress.
For the new study published in the journal Nature Communications on July 29, researchers reported how despite lacking a nervous system, plants react to their environment with a combination of electrical and chemical responses that is comparable to those of animals albeit the machinery is for the plants.
Study researcher Matthew Gilliham, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, said that researchers have long been aware that plants produce the animal neurotransmitter known as GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) when they are under stress such as when they encounter viruses, salinity, drought, extreme temperatures or acidic soils but it was not known whether this neurotransmitter was used plants as signals.
“We’ve discovered that plants bind GABA in a similar way to animals, resulting in electrical signals that ultimately regulate plant growth when a plant is exposed to a stressful environment,” Gilliham said.
Gilliham said that their findings revealed that plants bind the neurotransmitter in ways comparable to those in animals. The compound is the same among animals and plants but the proteins binding it differ, which means that animals and plants evolved how they use the compound.
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