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Article Addendum
Plant Host Finding by Parasitic Plants: A New Perspective on Plant to Plant Communication
Mark C. Mescher, Justin Runyon and Consuelo M. De Moraes
volume 1 | issue 6
november/december 2006Pages: 284 - 286
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Plants release airborne chemicals that can convey ecologically relevant information to other organisms. These plant volatiles are known to mediate a large array of, often complex, interactions between plants and insects. It has been suggested that plant volatiles may have similar importance in mediating interactions among plant species, but there are few well-documented examples of plant-to-plant communication via volatiles, and the ecological significance of such interactions has been much debated. To date, nearly all studies of volatile-mediated interactions among plant species have focused on the reception of herbivore-induced volatiles by neighboring plants. We recently documented volatile effects in another system, demonstrating that the parasitic plant Cuscuta pentagona uses volatile cues to locate its hosts. This finding may broaden the discussion regarding plant-to-plant communication, and suggests that new classes of volatile-meditated interactions among plant species await discovery.
Authors
Mark C. Mescher
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Justin Runyon
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Consuelo M. De Moraes
Pennsylvania State University
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.