Moths can help build "alliances" between different hosts against insects

People are familiar with parasitic phenomena in the animal world, but in the plant world, parasitics are also common.
silk is a commonly known parasitic plant.
parasitic plants are often thought to be harmful to the host and not to the benefit of the host.
, new research suggests that parasitic plants may have a positive side.
that under certain conditions, molyps can help build "alliances" between different hosts against insects.
all parasitic plants have a special organ, the sucker.
the parasitic plants through the suction and the host's vascive bundle tissue to form a connection, from the host to obtain nutrients, moisture and other substances needed for growth, resulting in a large loss of host nutrition, and thus seriously affect the growth and reproduction of the host.
is no exception, it has no roots and no leaves, through the stem wrapped around the host and produce a large number of suckers to obtain nutrition.
filaments have no or only very faint photosynthic use and are considered to be a class of all parasitic plants.
recently, researchers have found that the "material communication" between the host and the silk is very frequent, including not only water and nutrition, but also protein, secondary metabolites and so on.
a filament can often be parasitic on multiple neighboring hosts at the same time, connecting different hosts.
since the silk and the host have a wide range of material exchanges, then the "telephone line" the same silk can also allow different hosts to "exchange information" between each other? "Our study supports this hypothesis.
" Dr. Wu Jianqiang of kunming Plant Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave a clear answer.
returned from studying in Germany in 2012, Wu Jianqiang has developed a keen interest in the unique physiological forms of parasitic plants, and he and his team have been working to analyze this unique ecological phenomenon by molecular means.
recently, Wu Jianqiang's team, in collaboration with a member of the American Academy of Sciences, innovatively proposed the new concept of "micro-community formation of different hosts of silk and its connections".
They found that in this micro-community, the silk plays a "communication channel" role, when the insect eats a host, the host can produce a signal, this signal can not only induce the insect resistance of the ingut-eating plants, but also through the silk channel, this insect-resistant signal can be transmitted to other host plants, the same enhance the resistance of these plants.
the team's results also show that a plant hormone called jasmine acid plays an important role in this "communication" process, and that this signal can be transmitted to hosts at least a meter away and induce insect-resistant responses.
, the signal was measured to be transmitted at a speed of about two hours and a meter.
" this speed is very slow for people, but for plants, receiving this signal is like being ventilated, ready to fight insects by knowing in advance that there are insects nearby.
," Wu added.
published July 24, 2017 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a leading scientific research journal.
this study is the first to reveal the complex interactions between silk and hosts, hosts and hosts in plant micro-communityes where silk is connected from the molecular level.
these findings are not only of great significance for understanding insect-resistant signals, but also provide new enlightenment for the management of parasitic plant hazards in agriculture.
source: People's Daily Online.