Who said plants can't talk with each other?

A new study discovered a new form of communication among plants that allows them to share extraordinary amount of genetic information with one another.

Jim Westwood, a professor of plant pathology in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, said that this discovery open new doors in the arena of science that explores how plants communicate with each other on a molecular level.

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He also said that this gives scientists new insights on ways on fighting parasitic weeds that wreak havoc on crops in the poorest parts of the world.

Westwood said that this inter-organism communication shows that this is happening a lot more than any one has previously realized.

The next problem of scientists is figuring out what plants are telling each other, he added.

In his study, he found out that mRNA sends messages within cells telling them which action to takes like which proteins to code.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) comes from a large family of RNA molecules that can convey genetic information from DNA to ribosomes.

They could specify the amino acid sequence of protein products that be found on gene expressions.

mRNA can be fragile and short-lived therefore its ability to transfer between species was unimaginable, researchers said.   

Despite this, Westwood found that thousands of mRNA molecules were being exchanged between plants during their parasitic relationships.

This opens a dialogue between species that allows them to freely communicate, he explained.

Westwood suspects that in this exchange, parasitic plants dictate what the host plant should do like lowering its defenses so parasitic plants can easily move.

Scientists believe that with this new discovery they could find out if bacteria and fungi communicate the same way.

In his next study, Westwood would like to find out what the mRNAs are saying to each other.