News: Plants too hjave a nervous system

Plants too have a nervous system, can remember & react London: Plants "remember" and "react" to information encrypted in light as well as transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf, a process that is strikingly similar to the human nervous system.       These "electro-chemical signals" are carried by cells, which act as plant "nerves". Led by Stanislaw Karpinski, from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences  in Poland, researchers used fluorescence imaging to observe the plants" response. They found light shone on to one leaf generated a response from the whole plant.       the response, which tookthe form of light-induced chemical reactions in the leaves, continued in dark. This demonstrated, said scientists, the plant "remembered" the information encoded in light "We shone the light only on the bottom of the plant and we observed changes in the upper part," the BBC quoted Karpinske, as saying.         We shone the light only on the bottom of the plant and we observed changes in the upper part," Karpinske said in a statement. Karpinski and his team found that when light triggered a chemical reaction in one leaf cell, it kicked off a "cascade" of events and that this was immediately signaled to the rest of the plant via a specific type of cellcalled "bundle sheath cell". Karpinski felt plants might use the information encoded in the light to stimulate protective chemical reactions and immunise themselves against pathogens.