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elasticaltiger
Like Tigers in Coitus




Registered: 06/24/13
Posts: 8,438
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Plants Communicate Using Fungi
#18658402 - 08/04/13 11:41 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2013/08/03/aphid-attacks-should-be-reported-through-the-fungusphone/
Aphid attacks should be reported through the fungusphone
By Iddo on August 3rd, 2013
We like to think of ourselves as the better results of evolution. We humans are particularly proud of our ability to communicate, having invented cell phones, the Internet, and extended forelimb digits as sophisticated means of communication not found anywhere else in nature.
Not true. Where there is life, there is communication. Vocal, visual, chemical. Some fish even communicate electrically. Take, that, Alex G. Bell! From bacteria to Blue Whales, from yeast to yak, everyone communicates. Including plants.
When some plants are attacked by sap-sucking aphids, they emit volatile compounds into the air. These volatiles serve as a defense mechanism, and in more ways than one. First, they serve to repel the aphids attacking the plant. Second, they attract the aphids natural enemies, wasps. But there’s more to that: a team from the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute show that some plants use fungi to communicate the presence of aphids, allowing those plants to emit wasp-attracting and and aphid-repelling volatiles even before they have been physically attacked.
Introducing the arbuscular mycorrhyza (AM) fungus, which has been living symbiotically with plants for at least 460 million years. The AM fungi and their symbiotic plants create mycorrhiza, structures in which the fungus penetrates the plant’s root cells forming arbuscules, branched structures interfacing within the plant cells. The arbuscules allow the exchange of nutrients between plant and fungus. The result allows plants to capture nutrients such as phosphate, zinc and nitrogen. AM fungi are found in 80% of vascular plant families (plants which transport nutrients and water via a vascular system), which makes them an essential part of plant life. While we think of fungi mostly as mushrooms, those are only the fruiting bodies of the fungi. Like all fungi, the major biomass of AM lies in the mycelium: a network long, thin filamentous structures that branch within the soil where they grow. The hypothesis that the researchers tested was: are the AM fungus mycelia used to communicate information between plants, in a sort of symbiotic nervous system?
To answer this question, they planted bean seedlings in a pot whose soil contains an AM fungus. They isolated some seedlings from the AM fungus using a fine mesh, while others had only their roots isolated, or were not isolated at all. All plants were covered individually with bags to ensure they do not communicate via the air using volatiles. Then the researchers infested one plant with aphids, and collected the volatiles from the other plants. They discovered that the plants connected by the fungal network produced volatiles that repelled aphids and attracted wasps. Those plants which had no hyphal contact produced much less of these volatiles. In the control, the plants in the fine mesh that had hyphal contact only, but no root contact, also produced anti-aphid volatiles.
Bottom line: plants can communicate via fungal networks, although we don’t quite know how yet. Also, probably this is not an exclusive mode of communication. Apparently, symbiosis is not just about food or protection from predators or the elements. It’s also about conveying information. Very cool.
-------------------- First time growing cakes? DON'T make a Shotgun Fruiting Chamber The Shmuvbox. - The Old TC's Like it Afraid to Start Growing From Your Own Prints? Drop it Like a Tiger! No Pouring. No Syringes. No Cutting. No flaming. No Contamination. No Bullshit. "The best thing to do while your waiting is to start more stuff. I usually got so much happening that I have tossed projects simply because I didn't have time for them. -Pastywhite QFT Pastywhite's Easy Agar Tek (PastyPlates) Tiger Drop Video Demos By munchauzen Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.―Bill Watterson EZEKIEL 23:20
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niteman
Registered: 06/29/11
Posts: 1,050
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
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Really excellent. It has to suck to be an aphid.
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imachavel
I loved and lost but I loved-ftw



Registered: 06/06/07
Posts: 31,565
Loc: You get banned for saying that
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Re: Plants Communicate Using Fungi [Re: niteman]
#18660069 - 08/04/13 06:46 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Cool shit
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I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!
I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk
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Gorlax



Registered: 05/06/08
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Re: Plants Communicate Using Fungi [Re: imachavel]
#18660509 - 08/04/13 08:20 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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jack_straw2208
Doctor



Registered: 02/12/07
Posts: 3,122
Loc: Earth
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Re: Plants Communicate Using Fungi [Re: Gorlax]
#18661938 - 08/05/13 01:44 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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man fuck you, posting a fucking hour long video, that shit is stupid!
but i'm packing a bong and i'm gonna watch the whole thing, cause i was talking to a dude at work and he thought i was crazy for thinking that plants will communicate with you if you listen hard enough.
the guy who invented the lie detector would hook one up to a plant and then yell at them and threaten them with fire to observe their responses.
-------------------- If you can’t tell what you desperately need, it’s probably sleep.
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paranavar



Registered: 10/18/09
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Amazing. Reminded me of this! Google and the Myceliation of Consciousness
This could all be building towards a realisation of the relevance of fractals in describing the nature of reality. It's not merely similarities in form, but similarities in the essence of behaviours. Another example would be the relevance of concepts describing individual psychological traits in describing patterns of behaviour of large groups and institutions.
Here's a cool video riffing on this fractal pattern thing some more:
-------------------- nar mar mar
Edited by paranavar (08/05/13 03:47 AM)
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blitzd
a Stranger


Registered: 07/08/13
Posts: 197
Last seen: 10 years, 7 months
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Re: Plants Communicate Using Fungi [Re: paranavar]
#18666691 - 08/06/13 03:04 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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dam nature u skary
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phir3
citizen scientist



Registered: 04/14/13
Posts: 32
Loc: straya
Last seen: 3 years, 5 months
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Re: Plants Communicate Using Fungi [Re: blitzd]
#18671756 - 08/07/13 03:22 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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ok guys...i've been quietly getting my spawn on and researching for a couple months now...this guy is fucking amazballs http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR8Y7Ay6PJXndscDLpkLafg heaps of awesome mycology. he's a tripper, seems legit enough, make sure you link me if you find any dirt though. regarding the mycorrhiza: wiki says "A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic (generally mutualistic, but occasionally weakly pathogenic) association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant." it's fucking nuts. things like "Fossil evidence[22] and DNA sequence analysis[27] suggest that this mutualism appeared 400-460 million years ago, when the first plants were colonizing land. Arbuscular mycorrhizas are found in 85% of all plant families, and occur in many crop species.[23] The hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi produce the glycoprotein glomalin, which may be one of the major stores of carbon in the soil." ol' paul stamets thinks we've evolved from and with fungi symbiotically. i can't really argue, makes sense, considering we defos have an ecosystem within/on all of us and i fully believe in symbiotic genesis. they were around before us. we're more closely related to fungi than plants. join the hyphae together. we just gotta figure out what works where. this is his most recent video
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