It turns out that plants can "hear" sound

Plants do not have eyes or ears, but the chewing sounds of being eaten by pests are called "listen"It was revealed by the research team of the University of Missouri that it can be done.

MU News Bureau | MU News Bureau
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2014/0701-plants-respond-to-leaf-vibrations-caused-by-insects%E2%80%99-chewing-mu-study-finds/

Plants Can Hear Pests Attack | Agweb.com
http://www.agweb.com/article/plants-can-hear-pests-attack/

Plants Respond to Leaf Vibrations Caused by Insects' Chewing, MU Study Finds on Vimeo


Cooperative research between Mr. Rex Cocroft and Mr. Heidi Appel at the University of Missouri has shown that plants can sense the sound of herbivorous animals and pests eating themselves and react to it and move on to some kind of defense measures It was.

Mr. Cocroft recorded a sound when a caterpillar eats a leaf using a special vibration microphone using laser technology. The reason why the chewing sound is recorded is that the vibration generated when the caterpillar eats the leaf is much more patterned than the vibration generated when the caterpillar moves over the leaf.


After that, Mr. Cocroft and the research team prepared two Arabidopsis thaliana, one to leave it without doing anything, the other to let the chewy sound of the recorded caterpillar be heard. As a result of the experiment, the Arabidopsis thaliana who let the chewy sound of the recorded caterpillar for 2 or 3 hours have secreted that plants of the Brassicaceae are not eaten by insects "Allyl isothiocyanate(Mustard oil) "in large quantities.


In addition, it seems that we actually carried out experiments to place caternoids on the leaves, and to hear the sounds of wind and other insects, but Arabidopsis thaliana secretes mustard oil because the caterpillar is on the leaves It was only when I heard the chewy sound of a caterpillar. As a result, it is also clear that plants distinguish not only chewy sounds when they are being eaten but also various sounds for dexterity.


"What we have experimented with is a group of plants that secretes mustard oil from leaves such as Arabidopsis thaliana, mustard, cabbage etc. If this concentration goes up, we can kill caterpillars" Mr.

At the moment it is unclear how plants understand these sounds. However, in the cell membrane of plant cellsMechanical receptacleIt is said that Appel considers this mechanical receptor to be sensitive to sound vibrations, as it is a protein that is implanted and is an organ that signals in response to some movement.


In addition, this discovery seems to have a great influence not only on the ecology of plants but also on the agricultural sector.