For a plant on the forest floor, sudden exposure to light can be like someone opening the curtains in the morning when you’re trying to sleep. It’s a jarring shock that, according to new research, plants are facing together, similar to humans in times of need. When they grow close enough to touch, they appear to warn each other that trouble is on the way, and that warning makes them tougher.
In a new study published in bioRxiv, researchers led by University of Missouri plant biologist Ron Mittler grew the thale cress either alone or packed together so their leaves overlapped. When exposed to intense light, isolated plants showed more cellular damage. Plants that could touch their neighbors fared better, as if they had time to brace themselves.
We know plants have demonstrated an ability to communicate with one another through their underground root networks. Above ground, they can release airborne chemicals or even transmit electrical signals through leaf contact. Mittler’s team wanted to know whether that leaf-to-leaf contact actually mattered for survival.
It did. Within an hour of touching, plants activated more than 2,000 stress-response genes, covering everything from light and cold to flooding, salt, and physical injury. When the stress finally arrived, these plants were prepared, the leafy embodiment of “stay ready so you don’t gotta get ready.” The lonewolf plans were not so prepared.
The researchers identified the key messenger at play here: hydrogen peroxide. The same stuff you’ve kept in that dusty brown bottle beneath the bathroom sink for so long that you’re starting to suspect it came with the house is naturally produced in plants when under stress. This is the first time scientists have seen it moving directly from one plant to another as a warning signal. Plants that had been genetically altered were unable to pass the chemical and share its dire warning.
This might help explain something farmers and gardeners have been noticing since humans started farming tens of thousands of years ago: crops do better in groups. Maybe that’s a little lesson we can apply to all species, especially us.
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