Researchers at the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS) at Cornell University have taken a huge step toward making plant communication a two-way street. The team’s latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , unlocks a century-old mystery about how plants internally signal stress.

When a plant is wounded, such as when a caterpillar chews on a leaf, the pressure changes. This shift can cause a mass flow of water that carries stress chemicals to distant parts of the plant. These chemicals might, for example, prompt the plant to produce a toxic acid that fends off insects.

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