subscribing<\/a>. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n\nHis team decided to investigate further. The researchers grew the common research plant Arabidopsis thaliana<\/i> in containers, some of which were dotted with patches of rotting apple. The plants that encountered \u201cdecay zones\u201d bent their roots to avoid the bad apple, whereas the ones in containers lacking decay grew straight through. Repeating the experiment with other plants, including tomatoes and wheat, yielded similar results\u2014but an encounter with putrefying animal tissues had no effect. Zhang and his colleagues theorize that this reaction might help plants avoid pathogens, similar to the way unpleasant smells help animals steer clear of rotten food.<\/p>\n
Saprotropism seems to operate differently than most other plant tropisms. \u201cIt does not follow the classical mechanism,\u201d Zhang says. For example, gravitropism, or movement in response to gravity, and phototropism\u2014in response to light\u2014occur when plants redistribute the hormone auxin in their stems or roots, causing them to change their growth direction.<\/p>\n
In contrast, saprotropism relies on a hormone called abscisic acid (ABA). When the plant roots encounter an area acidified by decaying plant matter\u2014a chemical gradient distinct from that of animal matter\u2014ABA builds up on the side facing the rot, encouraging growth in the other direction.<\/p>\n
The work\u2019s scope is impressive, says Chris Wolverton, a plant biologist at Ohio Wesleyan University, who was not involved in the study. He adds, however, that \u201cthere\u2019s still a lot of open space in the signaling mechanism for more detail to get fleshed out.\u201d At what point, for instance, does decaying plant tissue break down enough to become nutritious compost?<\/p>\n
Zhang\u2019s team hopes to fill those gaps in future studies. Ultimately the research could help illuminate how plants sense and interact with the world around them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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