J. Bruin et M. Dicke, Chemical information transfer between wounded and unwounded plants: backing up the future, BIOCH SYST, 29(10), 2001, pp. 1103-1113
This special issue on "Chemical information transfer between wounded and un
wounded plants" provides an overview of past and ongoing experiments on pla
nt-to-plant communication. Since the studies on plant responses to single g
aseous compounds were not particularly emphasised, the actual number of stu
dies relevant to the subject is underestimated. All in all, we think the am
ount of data on damage-induced plant-to-plant information transfer makes th
at the phenomenon can no longer be denied and deserves intensified attentio
n by the scientific community. In this epilogue we highlight a couple of is
sues which received little attention and present some speculative ideas. Fi
rst we concentrate on functional aspects of plant-plant communication we st
ress the concept of damage-induced signalling as an ecological cost to the
signal-sending plant and we discuss the theoretical development on interpla
nt signalling, which is still in its infancy. With respect to mechanisms, w
e compare above- to belowground signalling, discuss potential cues and stre
ss the possibility that responses in signal-exposed plants may be hidden. F
inally, we address some future prospects which may help in the further deve
lopment of the still underexposed phenomenon of damage-induced plant-to-pla
nt information transfer. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
.