Plant neurobiology: from sensory biology, via plant communication, to social plant behavior

Abstract

In plants, numerous parameters of both biotic and abiotic environments are continuously monitored. Specialized cells are evolutionary-optimized for effective translation of sensory input into developmental and motoric output. Importantly, diverse physical forces, influences, and insults induce immediate electric responses in plants. Recent advances in plant cell biology, molecular biology, and sensory ecology will be discussed in the framework of recently initiated new discipline of plant sciences, namely plant neurobiology.

Senomic view of the cell: SenomeversusGenome

“…Recently it is emerging that all cells [25] demonstrate basal cognition [8,14,16,23,26–33]. Indeed, it has been argued that life should properly be defined through the property of self-referential cognition [31,34].…”

“…Furthermore, neuronal synapses have deep evolutionary origins and have evolved from proto-synapses [9,47] which might underlie primordial sentience based on proto-feelings, proto-emotions, proto-qualia, and proto-consciousness [7,24]. It can be argued that such a deep evolutionary origin of neurons and synapses implies that these derivative qualities are inherent aspects of cellular organisms which are as fundamental to unicellular existence as they are known to be for multicellular organisms [8,30,43,48]. …”

“…When so considered, the behavioral complexity of archaea, bacteria and diverse unicellular eukaryotes can be explained [14,18–21,72,73] In like manner, the intelligence of syncytial plasmodia Physarum polycephalum [16,74–76], as well as the intelligence of plants and their robust communicative/cognitive faculties can be sufficiently understood [8,77–82]. Thus, the Senome provides a background through which the basal cognitive capacities of the cell, can be explored along pathways toward the type of consciousness that is typically ascribed to animals, and eventually to ourselves.…”

“…Recent advances in neurosciences make it clear that feelings, emotions, qualia and consciousness are very real biological phenomena based on chemistry and fundamental biology [2–7]. Sleep, qualia, consciousness and cognition, all appear to represent essential living qualities, not only for humans, but for all living organisms as they struggle to survive in a hostile environment [8–17]. However, the true nature of these inherent phenomena is still elusive and highly controversial.…”

Electrophysiology of Woody Plants

“…Research on the subject of electrochemical phenomena in plants is generically known as plant electrophysiology (Volkov, 2006); this knowledge is the basis of a newly developed discipline in the field of plant physiology: plant neurobiology (Brenner et al, 2006;Stahlberg, 2006;Baluška & Mancuso, 2008;Barlow, 2008). Plant neurobiology is aimed at establishing the structure of information networks that exist within the plant, which is expressed as responses to environmental stimuli by means of electrochemical signals (Baluška et al, 2004;Trewavas, 2005).…”