Chemical information transfer between plants: back to the future

Chemical information conveyance between organisms has been well established for a wide range of organisms including protozoa, invertebrates, vertebrat es and plant-parasitic plants. During the past 20 years, various studies ha ve addressed whether chemical information conveyance also occurs between da maged and undamaged plants and many interesting pieces of evidence have bee n presented. To date. this research field has been restricted to the questi on whether and how plants (in general) are involved in plant-to-plant commu nication. However, apart from mechanistic questions, evolutionary questions should be addressed asking why plants do (or do not) exploit their neighbo ur's information and whether their strategy is affected by e.g. environment al conditions or previous experience. Recent progress in the field of chemi cal information conveyance between damaged and undamaged plants warrants an intensified study of this exciting topic in chemical ecology. (C) 2001 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.