Abstract
A recent letter to Trends in Plant Science signed by 36 scientists criticized the newly named area of plant neurobiology [ 1 Alpi A. et al. Plant neurobiology: no brain, no gain?. Trends Plant Sci. 2007; 12: 135-136 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (100) Google Scholar ]. This letter stated that ‘Its proponents have suggested that higher plants have nerves, synapses, the equivalent of a brain localized somewhere in the roots, and an intelligence’ and that these provocative ideas had developed over the past three years. It concluded that plant neurobiology does not add to our understanding of plant physiology, plant cell biology or signaling. I know of no plant biologist who contradicts the centuries-old anatomical evidence that shows that plants do not have nerves or a brain. Plant neurobiology is a metaphor. The claim quoted above by Amedeo Alpi et al. [ 1 Alpi A. et al. Plant neurobiology: no brain, no gain?. Trends Plant Sci. 2007; 12: 135-136 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (100) Google Scholar ] is factually incorrect, which could lead an unbiased reader to question the accuracy of any statements in the letter. However, metaphors can have substantial value and these few examples given below, out of many, substantially illustrate the value of neurobiology metaphors to plant biology and signaling.
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