Plants are more than just pretty! According to new research published last week in Nature Communications, plants respond to stress with chemical and electrical signals in a surprisingly similar way to animals.
Despite not having a nervous system, plants are still able to release gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that is mainly associated with humans and animals. Although scientists have known for a long time that GABA is produced by plants under stress, they were yet to discover that the neurotransmitter was also used by plants to create electrical signals that can regulate growth when they are exposed to a stressful environment.
While working with wheat, grape vine, rice and barley, it was discovered that the plants appear to respond similarly to stresses such as extreme heat, acidic soil or flooding. “Plants seem to have recruited GABA to regulate electrical signals that can then control their growth,” associate Professor Matthew Gilliham of the University of Adelaide, told Mashable Australia. “It’s a parallel between animals and plants that we didn’t know existed.”
The scientists are now working to modify the responses of plants to GABA and help them to adapt to cope with stressful conditions.
GABA is currently used widely across the pharmaceutical industry in medications for depression, anxiety and sleep disorders, but the new findings could prove much more significant with helping to explain why plant-derived drugs are so effective in humans.
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