Plant Email System Described (Posted in Intelligent Design)

Creation-Evolution Headlines ^ | April 7, 2017 | crev.info staff

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Plant Email System Described

Posted on April 7, 2017 in Intelligent Design

What do you call a long-distance signaling system that involves coded information?

Japanese researchers identified a coded string of information that acts as a signal, but it wasn’t intercepted email: it was a molecule inside a plant, the humble lab plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Phys.org says that scientists at Nagoya University identified a polypeptide that tells roots when the top of the plant is starved for nitrogen, essentially telling the roots to send some up pronto.

The polypeptide is not a random string of amino acids. It’s an ordered sequence that must be recognized by the plant to generate a purposeful response. The article shows that this is a two-way communication pathway, something like email with a molecular message:

Although not able to actively forage for their food, plants can nevertheless overcome problems relating to nutrient scarcity or varied distribution using a long-distance signaling mechanism. This helps determine their competitive success and productivity. For instance, nitrogen (usually in the form of nitrate) is essential for plant growth, but is often only present as patches in the soil. Nitrogen-starved roots express a mobile plant hormone (CEP) that travels upward to the shoot and eventually triggers compensatory nitrogen uptake by roots in more nitrogen-rich areas. This CEP signal is received by a receptor protein in the leaves, but the molecules involved in the shoot-to-root response signal were unknown.

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Article image

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Link to the Phys.org mentioned article:

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nitrogen-foraging-ability-mobile-shootroot.html

[dp0622]

Even more amazing is it just Randomly happened over time! /s

I love science and stories like these. I don’t see why knowledge has to clash with Religion.

You’d think one would be MORE inclined to believe there’s a God.

It’s like someone thinking a million years from now that the PCs they dug up evolved on their own from 16mb to 1 terabyte

[Rebelbase]

I wonder what plant species communicates the equivalent of the Nigerian email scams?

[Buckeye McFrog]

hibiscus@aol.com ?

[dp0622]

ROFL!!!! you’re a nut!!

[Boogieman]

Well, the venus flytrap emits one of the chemicals that is produced when meat rots, to attract flies for it to eat...

[Moonman62]

Even more amazing is it just Randomly happened over time! /s

I couldn't find such a claim one way or the other in the article linked in #2. In all my time on FR, I've only seen the claim in sarcastic statements.

I love science and stories like these. I don’t see why knowledge has to clash with Religion.

The world around us is awesome, even when we study it scientifically.

You’d think one would be MORE inclined to believe there’s a God.

It all comes down to definitions, unsupported conclusions, and defending the turf of long held beliefs. Not even religionists can work it out among themselves without beating each other over the head at least some of the time.