ArticleBMC ecology2013
Love thy neighbour: facilitation through an alternative signalling modality in plants.
Article in BMC ecology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Growth Inhibition and Allelopathy Enhancement ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Belowground interactions affect shoot growth inPlant signaling & behavior · 2021Article
- Effects of hydric stress on vibrational frequency patterns ofPlant signaling & behavior · 2020Article
- Plants are intelligent, here's how.Annals of botany · 2020Article
- The assessment of tomato fruit quality parameters under different sound waves.Journal of food science and technology · 2019Article
- On the Conditioning of Plants: A Review of Experimental Evidence.Perspectives on behavior science · 2018Review
- Proteomic Analysis of the Relationship between Metabolism and Nonhost Resistance in Soybean Exposed to Bipolaris maydis.PloS one · 2015Article
- In a green frame of mind: perspectives on the behavioural ecology and cognitive nature of plants.AoB PLANTS · 2014Article
- Article
- The natural history of consciousness, and the question of whether plants are conscious, in relation to the Hameroff-Penrose quantum-physical 'Orch OR' theory of universal consciousness.Communicative & integrative biologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBoth competitive and facilitative interactions between species play a fundamental role in shaping natural communities. A recent study showed that competitive interactions between plants can be mediated by some alternative signalling channel, extending beyond those channels studied so far (i.e. chemicals, contact and light). Here, we tested whether such alternative pathway also enables facilitative interactions between neighbouring plant species. Specifically, we examined whether the presence of a 'good' neighbouring plant like basil positively influenced the germination of chilli seeds when all known signals were blocked. For this purpose, we used a custom-designed experimental set-up that prevented above- and below-ground contact and blocked chemical and light-mediated signals normally exchange by plants.
resultsWe found that seed germination was positively enhanced by the presence of a 'good' neighbour, even when the known signalling modalities were blocked, indicating that light, touch or chemical signals may not be indispensible for different plant species to sense each other's presence.
conclusionsWe propose that this alternative signalling modality operates as a general indicator of the presence of heterospecifics, enabling seeds to detect and identify a neighbour prior to engaging in a more finely-tuned, but potentially more costly, response.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.