The coding of object thickness in plants: When roots matter

Tendrils are clasping structures used by climbing plants to anchor and support their vines that coil around suitable hosts to achieve the greatest exposure to sunlight. Although recent evidence suggests that climbing plants are able to sense the presence of a potential stimulus in the environment and to plan the tendrils' movements depending on properties such as its thickness, the mechanisms underlying thickness sensing in climbing plants have yet to be uncovered. The current research set out to use three-dimensional kinematical analysis to investigate if and in what way the root system contributed to thickness sensing. Experiment 1 was designed to confirm that the movement of the tendrils of pea plants (Pisum sativum L.) is planned and controlled on the basis of stimulus thickness when the stimulus is inserted into the substrate. Experiment 2 was designed to investigate what happens when the stimulus is lifted to the ground so as to impede the root system from sensing it. The results confirmed that tendrils' kinematics depend on thickness when the stimulus is available to the root system but not when it is unavailable to it. These findings suggest that the root system plays a pivotal role in sensing the presence and the thickness of a stimulus and that the information perceived affects the planning and the execution of the climbing plants' reach-to-grasp movements. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).