Communicating is key to how plants respond to stress and survive. Unlike animals, plants are sessile, meaning they can’t move around. Unable to run away from danger or relocate when things get stressful, plants have had to develop other ways to cope with challenges in their environment.
Plants navigate two distinct environments simultaneously: their roots anchor them in soil, while their shoots interact with the air. To thrive in both spaces, plants rely on intricate internal communication systems that transmit information from root to shoot and back again. These interactions occur across multiple scales, from cell-to-cell, root to shoot, in complex exchanges between plants and their environment. Until now, scientists have only been able to capture static glimpses of these conversations.
CROPPS scientists investigate how plants communicate with each other and their environment. By unlocking this biological language, we’re creating new ways for plants, people, and ecosystems to interact.
