Plant arithmetic
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Plant arithmetic is a form of plant cognition whereby plants appear to perform arithmetic operations – a form of number sense in plants. Some such plants include the Venus flytrap and Arabidopsis thaliana.
Arithmetic by species[edit]
Venus flytrap[edit]
The Venus flytrap can count to two and five in order to trap and then digest its prey.[1][2]
The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that catches its prey with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves, which is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. A Venus flytrap's reactions can occur due to electric and mechanic, or movement-related, changes.[3][4][5] When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if a second contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value, and the plant will only begin digestion after five more stimuli to ensure it has caught a live bug worthy of consumption.
There are two steps, which are a closed and locked state, that a Venus flytrap undergoes after its open state and before digestion, which differ due to the formation of the trap.[3][4][5] A closed trap occurs when the two lobes close or catch prey.[3][4][5] A locked trap occurs when the cilia further trap the prey.[3][4] The trap can possess a strength of four Newtons.[4] In addition, the cilia can further hinder a creature's ability to escape.[3][4]
The mechanism is so highly specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli, such as falling raindrops;[6] two trigger hairs must be touched in succession within 20 seconds of each other or one hair touched twice in rapid succession,[6] whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut, typically in about one-tenth of a second.[7]
The number of days that the trap remains closed will depend on whether or not the plant has caught prey.[3] Furthermore, the size of the prey can affect the number of days needed for digestion.[3] If a creature is too small, then the Venus flytrap has the ability to release it, which means that it can start the stage of becoming semi-open.[3][4] The transition from closed to open will take two days and can result after the plant has finished digesting or realizing it has not caught anything worthwhile.[3][4] One day will be needed to become semi-open, which creates a concave look, and the other day will allow the Venus flytrap to become fully open, which creates a convex look.[3][4] The angle of a Venus flytrap's lobes when they are open can be impacted by the water within it.[5]
Arabidopsis thaliana[edit]
Arabidopsis thaliana in effect performs division to control starch use at night.[8]
Most plants accumulate starch by day, then metabolize it at a fixed rate during night time. However, if the onset of darkness is unusually early, Arabidopsis thaliana reduces its use of starch by an amount that effectively requires division.[9] However, there are alternative explanations,[10] such as feedback control by sensing the amount of soluble sugars left.[11] As of 2015, open questions remain.[12]
See also[edit]
- Embodied cognition – Interdisciplinary theory
- Plant cognition – Proposed cognition of plants
- Plant communication – Communication between plants and other organisms
- Plant perception (physiology) – Plants interaction to environment
- Number sense in animals
- Numerical cognition – Study of numerical and mathematical abilities
References[edit]
- ^ Böhm, Jennifer; Scherzer, Sönke; Krol, Elzbieta; Kreuzer, Ines; von Meyer, Katharina; Lorey, Christian; Mueller, Thomas D.; Shabala, Lana; Monte, Isabel; Solano, Roberto; Al-Rasheid, Khaled A.S.; Rennenberg, Heinz; Shabala, Sergey; Neher, Erwin; Hedrich, Rainer (February 2016). "The Venus Flytrap Dionaea muscipula Counts Prey-Induced Action Potentials to Induce Sodium Uptake". Current Biology. 26 (3): 286–295. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.057. PMC 4751343. PMID 26804557.
- ^ "Plants count to five". Nature. 529 (7587): 440. 2016. doi:10.1038/529440a. S2CID 49905733.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Volkov, Alexander G.; et al. (January 15, 2011). "Complete hunting cycle of Dionaea muscipula: Consecutive steps and their electrical properties". Journal of Plant Physiology. 168 (2): 109–120 – via ScienceDirect.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Volkov, Alexander G.; et al. (January 1, 2013). "Venus flytrap biomechanics: Forces in the Dionaea muscipula trap". Journal of Plan Physiology. 170 (1): 25–32 – via ScienceDirect.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Sachse, Renate; Westermeier, Anna; Mylo, Max; Nadasdi, Joey; Bischoff, Manfred; Speck, Thomas; Poppinga, Simon (July 7, 2020). "Snapping mechanics of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)". PubMed Central. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray Franklin; Eichhorn, Susan E. (2005). Biology of Plants (7th ed.). W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 978-0-7167-1007-3.
- ^ Forterre, Yoël; Skotheim, Jan M.; Dumais, Jacques; Mahadevan, L. (27 January 2005). "How the Venus flytrap snaps" (PDF). Nature. 433 (7024): 421–425. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..421F. doi:10.1038/nature03185. PMID 15674293. S2CID 4340043. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2007.
- ^ Ledford, Heidi (24 June 2013). "Plants perform molecular maths". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.13251. S2CID 124849485.
- ^ Scialdone, Antonio; Mugford, Sam T; Feike, Doreen; Skeffington, Alastair; Borrill, Philippa; Graf, Alexander; Smith, Alison M; Howard, Martin (25 June 2013). "Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night". eLife. 2: e00669. arXiv:1306.5148. doi:10.7554/eLife.00669. PMC 3691572. PMID 23805380.
- ^ Webb, A. A. R.; Satake, A. (5 March 2015). "Understanding Circadian Regulation of Carbohydrate Metabolism in Arabidopsis Using Mathematical Models". Plant and Cell Physiology. 56 (4): 586–593. doi:10.1093/pcp/pcv033. PMID 25745029.
- ^ Feugier, François G.; Satake, Akiko (2013). "Dynamical feedback between circadian clock and sucrose availability explains adaptive response of starch metabolism to various photoperiods". Frontiers in Plant Science. 3: 305. doi:10.3389/fpls.2012.00305. PMC 3544190. PMID 23335931.
- ^ Scialdone, Antonio; Howard, Martin (31 March 2015). "How plants manage food reserves at night: quantitative models and open questions". Frontiers in Plant Science. 6: 204. doi:10.3389/fpls.2015.00204. PMC 4379750. PMID 25873925.