UArizona receives grant for project to learn how plants 'talk'

University of Arizona receives grant for project to learn how plants 'talk'

Scientists know plants talk to each other and animals by sending signals, through the air and underground. Now, scientists want to use the latest technology to decipher that language, so plants can tell us what they want. FOX 10's Brian Webb reports.

PHOENIX - The University of Arizona is digging into a new project.

At a field in Maricopa, Ariz., the world's largest robotic field scanner is listening in to the plant's conversations.

"They can release scents or volatile compounds, and they can say, 'hey, I'm under attack, so you better be prepared,'" said Rebecca Mosher, an Associate Professor with the University of Arizona.

Recently, UArizona received a $3.5 million 'plant grant' to better eavesdrop on agriculture, like high-tech sensors to pick up light waves and electrical charges, and supercomputers to decipher the messages and measure them, so that maybe one day, people will be able to talk to plants.

"Can we develop a genetic circuit to tell the plant that we wanted to go into drought stress right now, so that we can push it into a physiological state and better understand how that intersects with other factors," said Mosher.

The goal is to understand what plants want and need, and to be able to give it to them at a time the population is growing, the climate is changing, and the plants' survival, as well as ours, is at stake.

"Can we create crops that have better yields, or produce that yield with better inputs that don't need as much water or fertilizer, so that we can still maintain food production in a more sustainable way," said Mosher.

UArizona is working with several other schools and organizations to make this happen. They have five years' worth of funding, and hope to get another five years after that.