Neurobiological View of Plants and Their Body Plan - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 21

of volatile compounds not only for plant-insect, but also for plant-plant,
communication. Some of these serve as chemical warning signals by being
sensed by other plants in the vicinity of the area attacked (Dicke and Sabelis
1988; van der Putten et al. 2001; Bais et al. 2004; Weir et al. 2004).
It is obvious that the immobility of plants imposes different and, perhaps,
greater pressures on them if they are to survive. Smart plants can memorize
stressful environmental experiences, and can call upon this information to
take decisions about their future activities (Goh et al. 2003). Moreover, not
only have neuronal molecules been found in plants (reviewed by Baluška
et al. 2004b), but plant synapses are also present which use the same vesic-
ular recycling processes for cell-cell communication as neuronal synapses
(Baluška et al. 2005a). Roots respond sensitively, via increases of cyto-
plasmic calcium, to glutamate, while other amino acids do not show this
feature (Filleur et al. 2005). Root systems can identify self and non-self roots
(Gruntman and Novoplansky 2004). Recent new views about consciousness
and self-awareness, when considered as biological phenomena inseparable
from adaptation and learning processes (Searle 1997, 2004; Koch 2004a, b),
are compatible with the new neurobiologically oriented view of plants.
2.2
Root Apex as the Anterior Pole of the Plant Body
Classically, the plant body is considered to have an apical-basal axis of
polarity settled during embryogenesis, with the shoot tip representing the
apical pole, and the root tip the basal pole of the plant body (Jürgens
2001). But there are several anatomical and physiological aspects which
are incompatible with this view of the plant body axis. Originally, this ter-
minology was derived from plant embryology where roots are considered
to develop at the so-called basal end of the embryo (Baluška et al. 2005a).
Nevertheless, this apical-basal terminology does not have any justification
as plant embryos do not align along the gravity vector as is the case of
postembryonic plant bodies. With reference to gravity, a positive gravity
response, with downward movement of root apices, could be regarded as
an apical or anterior feature. On the other hand, a negative response could
be a basal or posterior feature. Such a neurobiological view of the plant
body offers a possibility to unify plants with other multicellular organisms
by defining the anterior-posterior axis of the postembryonic plant body.
This would be logical as postembryonic plant bodies are clearly polarized
into the root apices specialized for movements and uptake of nutrients,
which are characteristics of the anterior pole. This is opposed by the shoot
apices specialized for determinate growth and subsequent transformation
into sexual organs, which are characteristics of the posterior pole.