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CONTROVERSIAL LANGUAGE IN TITLE. “Microorganism and filamentous fungi drive evolution of plant synapses.” Synapses are junctions on animal nerve cells. Plants do not have nerves. This approach provoked a firestorm of conservative reaction, that arguably sent this important new field backwards in time. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

CO-EVOLUTION OF THE PARTS. "Roots, vascular systems, and flowers represent relatively late plant innovations and contribute substantially to the complexity of plant bodies after the colonization of land by terrestrial plants. Importantly, all three features are inherently associated with polar auxin transport, underlying their likely co-evolution." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

SOCIAL DECEPTION BY PLANTS. "Orchids, such as Ophrys, exemplify plant social deception in plant-animal interactions. They offer no nectar, which is energetically costly to synthesize, but rather attract and seduce male bees with perfect shapes, colors and scents, mimicking female bees ready for copulation." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

AUXINS AND EVOLUTION. "Key evolutionary innovations of vascular plants—the formation of vascular system and true roots—were associated with the invention of plasma membrane-associated PINs that exported auxin out of cells." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

"EXPERT USE of secure chemical signals, similar to chemical signaling by intelligent microorganisms, permits plants to perpetrate social altruism and cheating. Such phenomena can be found for the most evolved plants—the prominent monocot crop plants (maize, rice, wheat, barley) which entered co-evolution with humans—and orchids which evolved deceptive behaviors to attract pollinating animals to minimize ecological tradeoffs." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

HONEY POT STRATEGY. "In order to attract relevant animals to perform services, flowering plants evolved a generous battery of strategies. The most efficient of these strategies is to supply animals with tasty, energy-rich foods in the form of nectars, seeds, and buds." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

CO-EVOLUTION. "Animals primarily co-evolved with plants to serve as pollinators, but additional “services” also provide valuable ecological functions, such as seed dispersal, protection against parasites, and predators, as well as cultivation and propagation of crop plants around the globe by humans." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

ASSESSING THE TARGET. "Higher plants must form very good internal models (e.g., networked somatic, genetic, and epigenetic computational systems capable of perceptual representation, memory and good predictions) concerning the biological nature of animals to accomplish any meaningful level of mutualism, parasitism, or commensalism, and co-evolution." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn

CLEVER DECEITS. "Many plants successfully manipulate animals for their purposes." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2013.00044/full View in LinkedIn