Plants alert neighbors to threats using common language

New research from Cornell University shows that plants can communicate with each other when they are attacked by pests.

The study shows that plants can share messages in the form of airborne chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that transfer information between them.

André Kessler, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell, and his team studied Solidago altissima, a species of goldenrod native to the northeast, and followed the impact of a specific herbivore: the Colorado beetle.

The main conclusion is what Kessler calls "open channel communication". When plants are attacked, their odours, carried by VOCs, are more similar.

"So they converge on the same language, or on the same warning signs, to freely share information," said Mr. Kessler. "The exchange of information becomes independent of the proximity of the plant to its neighbour."

Research has shown that nearby plants detect warning VOCs and prepare for the perceived threat, as an incoming pest.

"What we very often see when plants are attacked by pathogens or herbivores is that they alter their metabolism," says Kessler. "But it's not a random change - in fact, these chemical and metabolic changes also help them cope with these aggressors. It's a bit like our immune system: even if plants don't have antibodies like us, they can defend themselves with a rather unpleasant chemistry."

This chemistry includes defensive compounds. For example, some VOCs may attract predatory insects, or parasitoids, that kill the herbivore and save the plant.

Such discoveries could have practical applications around the world.

"For a long time, people have thought about using plant-to-plant interactions in organic agriculture to protect crops, especially when intercropping systems exist," says Kessler. We are involved in work on a system in Kenya called "push-pull" developed by the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology, which uses information flow manipulation to control a pest in maize fields.

The article "Insect Herbivory Selects for Volatile-Mediated Plant-Plant Communication" was published in Current Biology.

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