Shapeshifting Vine

I’ve been thinking about plants and photon-absorbing pigments having recently read a speculative and interesting origin-of-life article that suggests animals might be gardeners co-opted by plants. Last year, I read about flavor molecules and poisons, which are part of the suite of secondary metabolites released by plants. Right now I’m reading The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger, a fascinating look into cutting-edge and controversial research in botany. Do plants “scream in pain” when we pluck a leaf or break a twig? Do they then warn their neighbors with signaling molecules that danger is nearby? Can they listen to sounds? Are they “conscious” in their own way, different from humans or octopi? These are interesting questions, and Schlanger delves deep into the research. Her writing is also thoroughly engaging, aimed at the non-expert, reminding me of Ed Yong’s superb book. Who would have thought botany would be so exciting!

 

Chapter 8 discusses the “chameleon vine”: Boquila trifoliolata. I’d never heard of it before. It is native to Chile and has some interesting cousins in Asia. This vine of a plant is an actual shapeshifter. Not like the lizard chameleon that can only change its colors. Not like the leafy water dragon that has evolved to look like the water plants where it spends its time. Not like many examples of adaptation in nature that take generations. Boquila does its shapeshifting in real time. But this is plant time, measured in hours or days; too slow for us impatient humans who prefer to marvel at it with time-lapsed photography. It has reshaped its leaves to mimic dozens of other plants, some that look very different from each other. Sometimes the details are astonishingly close; sometimes the match is poorer. How does this happen?

 

There are two prevailing theories; there is some experimental evidence for each but scientists are still in the throes of figuring out what’s going on. That’s what the cutting-edge of science looks like. The theories may sound wild. One is the “plants have vision” hypothesis. Plant leaves have plenty of light-sensitive molecules, not just ones used in photosynthesis. Maybe the vine sees its neighbor and mimics it. The other gives primacy to microorganisms; the shared space may allow microorganisms to exchange information (horizontal gene transfer), and to move from one plant to another, that may then translate into building leaves that look identical. Both ideas sound crazy when you first hear them, but there is some evidence for each. Not enough to gain widespread acceptance. Science is conservative, for good reason. You don’t discard an established theory that was built up by initial evidence unless the new evidence that disproves it is sufficient and overwhelmingly so.

 

I don’t know which of the two theories I lean towards. However, both ideas have pushed me to think more about my own research. Since getting into origin-of-life research, I’ve started to pay close attention to microorganisms, bacteria and archaea. Since starting to teach biochemistry, I’ve been marveling at the world of metabolites – plants and fungi are amazing in this regard where secondary metabolism is concerned. I’m starting to see conjugated pi-systems show up in origin-of-life related molecules, and I’ve started to read up on how to analyze photochemical reactions using computational chemistry. There’s something intriguing about the interplay of photons and chemistry that could be the key to why we have dynamic systems, building up molecules and breaking them down, going along the flow of the second law of thermodynamics yet diverting it to one’s own ends. That last phrase might sound speculative and crazy too.

 

This brings me back to pondering the nature of the boggart, one of my early posts when I started this Potions for Muggles blog. We now have a plant boggart in being able to shapeshift, but seemingly limited to being a mimic. While the Harry Potter books do mention interesting plants and their properties, this seems subdued compared to Fantastic Beasts and how to find them. We miss the wondrous nature of plants because they seem so unlike us. Boquila would have been of great interest to Professor Sprout, and I could see her working closely with a Potions Master to delve into the subtle connections between plants and their secondary metabolites that would go into potions!