Dr. Samarth

But the clear gap is in understanding how they're actually able to perceive those sound vibrations, if there are any specific receptors, or I should say, if the plants have specific ears through which they can hear vibrations.

If you look at the concept of hearing, it's just about pressure, right?

Change in the pressure.

If you look at the eardrums as well, it's the change in the pressure that induces that biophysical changes to chemical changes.

So exactly.

So we believe that plants also have these hair-like structures on their leaf.

And these hair-like structure act as sort of pressure sensing mechanism.

These are called trichomes and they bend.

in response to pressure.

So this bending, this physical bending in response to that pressure change, converts that physical change into chemical change downstream.

So there are other hypotheses as well, for surely, that we have been looking at.

So one of them is having these specific calcium channels.

So if I provide an analogy to it, in our nerve cells, we have channels that

induces calcium and voltage-gated channels that releases some of the hormones.

Similarly, plants have similar channels, ion channels.

So if you have calcium ion channels, for example, and they respond, they also respond to pressure changes.

So if that can initiate or induce calcium leaching or calcium ion movements, that can also start some of the signaling physiological processes.

So that's another hypothesis that we have been working on here at University of Canterbury.

That's a very good question and I would say very important for us as well.

If you can let plants know that there is a stress that's coming in one way or the other, they can prepare for an upcoming danger.