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MOLECULAR SENSITIVITY. "Plants are also able to sense the number and frequency of stem bending events. When several bends are imposed on poplar stems, the impact on the transcriptome becomes less pronounced from the second bending event onwards. It also takes no less than a week without bending for a stem to recover full molecular sensitivity to such mechanical deformation." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

PLANT NUMERACY. "There is evidence that plants are able to record the number and frequency of mechanical stimuli. The Venus flytrap uses action potentials to measure the number of times an insect touches the trigger hairs of its trap over the course of an hour." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

"THREE HALLMARKS of thigmomorphogenesis are: a dose responsiveness that prevents the plant from responding to isolated events, a systemic nature such that a stimulus applied to one organ leads to changes in overall plant morphology, and a characteristic delay between the initial stimulus and the developmental response." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

REGULATOR VALIDATION. "We show here that the Arabidopsis Paf1 complex is a critical factor for stem and root thigmomorphogenesis, stereotypical alterations in plant form that are made in response to repeated mechanical disturbance." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

PLANT TOUCH RESPONSES. "Over many years of evolution, plants have developed very sensitive mechanisms through which they can perceive and respond to even subtle stimuli, like touch. Some plants respond behaviourally to the touch stimulus within seconds, while others show morphogenetic alterations over long periods of time, ranging from days to weeks." https://lnkd.in/dbRzjKM View in LinkedIn

CANDIDATE REGULATOR. "The first mutant isolated in this screen identified a known regulator of gene expression, the RNA Polymerase II-associated factor 1 (Paf1) complex, as a key element of thigmomorphogenesis that serves to integrate touch stimuli over time." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues the contemplation of plant responses to physical stimulus, and the genes and biochemical pathways involved. Science in the West has been a latecomer to this story, which has been known in ancient Japan for a very long time. But science did catch up, and the ancient myth is validated. View in LinkedIn

REGULATOR MUTANT SEARCH. "Here we concentrated on stem thigmomorphogenesis to identify new regulators of the touch response. We screened for plants that did not exhibit shortened stems after repeated touch." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

NEW TREE OF LIFE. "Build a fully functioning mirror cell made of molecules they themselves would synthesise. To put it another way: don't just create new branches on the tree of life, as Venter was doing with his tweaks of existing cells. Instead, create an entirely new tree." https://lnkd.in/d_9HSZe View in LinkedIn

STEREOTYPICAL RESPONSE. "Arabidopsis exhibits several stereotypical thigmomorphogenic responses that require multiple days of touch, including the inhibition of stem elongation, shortened petioles, reduced rosette diameter and delayed transition to flowering." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn