Biocommunication of fungi demonstrates that mycelia communication integrates interspecific sign-mediated interactions between fungal organisms, soil bacteria and plant root cells without which plant nutrition could not be organized. Biocommunication of Ciliates identifies the various levels and motifs of communication in these unicellulareukaryotes. Biocommunication of Archaea represents key levels of sign-mediated interactions in the evolutionarily oldest akaryotes. Biocommunication of phages demonstrates that the most abundant living agents on this planet coordinate and organize by sign-mediated interactions. Biocommunication is the essential tool to coordinate behavior of various cell types of immune systems.[7]
Biocommunication, biosemiotics and linguistics
Biocommunication theory may be considered to be a branch of biosemiotics. Whereas biosemiotics studies the production and interpretation of signs and codes, biocommunication theory investigates concrete interactions mediated by signs. Accordingly, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of biocommunication processes are distinguished.[8] Biocommunication specific to animals (animal communication) is considered a branch of zoosemiotics.[9] The semiotic study of molecular genetics, can be considered a study of biocommunication at its most basic level.[10]
Interpretation of abiotic indices
Birds migrate based on cues from their environment
Interpreting stimuli from the environment is an essential part of life for any organism. Abiotic things that an organism must interpret include climate (weather, temperature, rainfall), geology (rocks, soil type), and geography (location of vegetation communities, exposure to elements, location of food and water sources relative to shelter sites).[11]
Birds, for example, migrate using cues such as the approaching weather or seasonal day length cues. Birds also migrate from areas of low or decreasing resources to areas of high or increasing resources, most commonly food or nesting locations. Birds that nest in the Northern Hemisphere tend to migrate north in the spring due to the increase in insect population, budding plants and the abundance of nesting locations. During the winter birds will migrate south to not only escape the cold, but find a sustainable food source.[12]
Some plants will bloom and attempt to reproduce when they sense days getting shorter. If they cannot fertilize before the seasons change and they die then they do not pass on their genes. Their ability to recognize a change in abiotic factors allow them to ensure reproduction.[citation needed]
Trans-organismic communication
Trans-organismic communication is when organisms of different species interact. In biology the relationships formed between different species is known as symbiosis. These relationships come in two main forms - mutualistic and parasitic. Mutualistic relationships are when both species benefit from their interactions. For example, pilot fish gather around sharks, rays, and sea turtles to eat various parasites from the surface of the larger organism. The fish obtain food from following the sharks, and the sharks receive a cleaning in return.[13]
Parasitic relationships are where one organism benefits off of the other organism at a cost. For example, in order for mistletoe to grow it must leach water and nutrients from a tree or shrub.
Dandelion flower under both UV light coloration (left) and visible light coloration (right). UV coloration in flowers has evolved to attract pollinators with vision in the ultraviolet range.
Communication between species is not limited to securing sustenance. Many flowers rely on bees to spread their pollen and facilitate floral reproduction. To allow this, many flowers evolved bright, attractive petals and sweet nectar to attract bees. In a 2010 study, researchers at the University of Buenos Aires examined a possible relationship between fluorescence and attraction. The study concluded that reflected light was much more important in pollinator attraction than fluorescence.[14]
Communicating with other species allows organisms to form relationships that are advantageous in survival, and all of these relationships are all based on some form of trans-organismic communication.
Inter-organismic communication
Inter-organismic communication is communication between organisms of the same species (conspecifics). Inter-organismic communication includes human speech, which is key to maintaining social structures.
Dolphins communicate with one another to aid navigation
Dolphins communicate with one another in a number of ways by creating sounds, making physical contact with one another and through the use of body language. Dolphins communicate vocally through clicking sounds and pitches of whistling specific to only one individual. The whistling helps communicate the individual's location to other dolphins. For example, if a mother loses sight of her offspring, or when two familiar individuals cannot find each other, their individual pitches help navigate back into a group. Body language can be used to indicate numerous things such as a nearby predator, to indicate to others that food has been found, and to demonstrate their level of attractiveness in order to find a mating partner, and even more.[15]
However, mammals such as dolphins and humans are not alone communicating within their own species. Peacocks can fan their feathers in order to communicate a territorial warning. Bees can tell other bees when they’ve found nectar by performing a dance when they return to the hive. Deer may flick their tails to warn others in their trail that danger is approaching.[16]
Intra-organismic communication
Intra-organismic communication is not solely the passage of information within an organism, but also concrete interaction between and within cells of an organism, mediated by signs. This could be on a cellular and molecular level. An organism's ability to interpret its own biotic information is extremely important. If the organism is injured, falls ill, or must respond to danger, it needs to be able to process that physiological information and adjust its behavior.
For example, when the human body starts to overheat, specialized glands release sweat, which absorbs the heat and then evaporates.
A stress signal being transmitted intracellularly through a plant's phytohormones
This communication is imperative to survival in many species including plant life. Plants lack a central nervous system so they rely on a decentralized system of chemical messengers. This allows them to grow in response to factors such as wind, light and plant architecture. Using these chemical messengers, they can react to the environment and assess the best growth pattern.[17] Essentially, plants grow to optimize their metabolic efficiency.
Humans also rely on chemical messengers for survival. Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, is a hormone that is secreted during times of great stress. It binds to receptors on the surface of cells and activates a pathway that alters the structure of glucose. This causes a rapid increase in blood sugar. Adrenaline also activates the central nervous system increasing heart rate and breathing rate. This prepares the muscles for the body's natural fight-or-flight response.[18]
Organisms rely on many different means of intra-organismic communication. Whether it is through neural connections, chemical messengers, or hormones,[clarification needed] these all evolved to respond to threats, maintain homeostasis and ensure self preservation.
Language hierarchy
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Given the complexity and range of biological organisms and the further complexity within the neural organization of any particular animal organism, a variety of biocommunication languages exists.
A hierarchy of biocommunication languages in animals has been proposed by Subhash Kak: these languages, in order of increasing generality, are associative, re-organizational, and quantum.[19][20] The three types of formal languages of the Chomsky hierarchy map into the associative language class, although context-free languages as proposed by Chomsky do not exist in real life interactions.
↑ Taiz, Lincoln; Eduardo Zeiger (2002). "Plant Physiology Online". a companion to Plant Physiology, Third Edition. Sinauer Associates. Archived from the original on December 7, 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
↑ Rieckmann JC, Geiger R, Hornburg D, Wolf T, Kveler K, Jarrossay D, Sallusto F, Shen-Orr SS, Lanzavecchia A, Mann M, Meissner F. 2017. Social network architecture of human immune cells unveiled by quantitative proteomics. Nat Immunol. 18(5):583-593.
↑ Wheatcroft, D., Price, T., & Wheatcroft, D. (2013). Learning and signal copying facilitate communication among bird species. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 280(1757), 20123070–20123070. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.3070
↑ Witzany, Günther. (2006). Plant communication from biosemiotic perspective: Differences in abiotic and biotic signal perception determine content arrangement of response behavior. context determines meaning of meta-, inter- and intraorganismic plant signaling. Plant Signaling and Behavior, 1(4), 169–178. https://doi.org/10.4161/psb.1.4.3163
↑ “Understanding the Stress Response.” Harvard Health, Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School, 1 May 2018, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response.
↑ Kak, S. The three languages of the brain: quantum, reorganizational, and associative. In Learning as Self-Organization, Karl Pribram and J. King (editors). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 185-219, 1996.
Abiotic stress is the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the population performance or individual physiology of the organism in a significant way.
Biology – The natural science that studies life. Areas of focus include structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy.
Symbiosis is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two biological organisms of different species, termed symbionts, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms". The term is sometimes used in the more restricted sense of a mutually beneficial interaction in which both symbionts contribute to each other's support.
Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens and environmental conditions. Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease etiology, disease cycles, economic impact, plant disease epidemiology, plant disease resistance, how plant diseases affect humans and animals, pathosystem genetics, and management of plant diseases.
Plant hormones are signal molecules, produced within plants, that occur in extremely low concentrations. Plant hormones control all aspects of plant growth and development, including embryogenesis, the regulation of organ size, pathogen defense, stress tolerance and reproductive development. Unlike in animals each plant cell is capable of producing hormones. Went and Thimann coined the term "phytohormone" and used it in the title of their 1937 book.
Animal languages are forms of non-human animal communication that show similarities to human language. Animals communicate through a variety of signs, such as sounds or movements. Signing among animals may be considered a form of language if the inventory of signs is large enough. The signs are relatively arbitrary, and the animals seem to produce them with a degree of volition. In experimental tests, animal communication may also be evidenced through the use of lexigrams by chimpanzees and bonobos.
Animal communication is the transfer of information from one or a group of animals to one or more other animals that affects the current or future behavior of the receivers. Information may be sent intentionally, as in a courtship display, or unintentionally, as in the transfer of scent from predator to prey with kairomones. Information may be transferred to an "audience" of several receivers. Animal communication is a rapidly growing area of study in disciplines including animal behavior, sociology, neurology and animal cognition. Many aspects of animal behavior, such as symbolic name use, emotional expression, learning and sexual behavior, are being understood in new ways.
Biosemiotics is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, production of signs and codes and communication processes in the biological realm.
Zoosemiotics is the semiotic study of the use of signs among animals, more precisely the study of semiosis among animals, i.e. the study of how something comes to function as a sign to some animal. It is the study of animal forms of knowing.
Human–animal communication is the communication observed between humans and other animals, ranging from non-verbal cues and vocalizations to the use of language.
The rhizosphere is the narrow region of soil or substrate that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms known as the root microbiome. Soil pores in the rhizosphere can contain many bacteria and other microorganisms that feed on sloughed-off plant cells, termed rhizodeposition, and the proteins and sugars released by roots, termed root exudates. This symbiosis leads to more complex interactions, influencing plant growth and competition for resources. Much of the nutrient cycling and disease suppression by antibiotics required by plants occurs immediately adjacent to roots due to root exudates and metabolic products of symbiotic and pathogenic communities of microorganisms. The rhizosphere also provides space to produce allelochemicals to control neighbours and relatives.
In biology, cell signaling is the process by which a cell interacts with itself, other cells and the environment. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellular life in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Interspecies communication is communication between different species of animals, plants, or microorganisms.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ecology:
Biotic stress is stress that occurs as a result of damage done to an organism by other living organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, beneficial and harmful insects, weeds, and cultivated or native plants. It is different from abiotic stress, which is the negative impact of non-living factors on the organisms such as temperature, sunlight, wind, salinity, flooding and drought. The types of biotic stresses imposed on an organism depend the climate where it lives as well as the species' ability to resist particular stresses. Biotic stress remains a broadly defined term and those who study it face many challenges, such as the greater difficulty in controlling biotic stresses in an experimental context compared to abiotic stress.
Cell–cell interaction refers to the direct interactions between cell surfaces that play a crucial role in the development and function of multicellular organisms. These interactions allow cells to communicate with each other in response to changes in their microenvironment. This ability to send and receive signals is essential for the survival of the cell. Interactions between cells can be stable such as those made through cell junctions. These junctions are involved in the communication and organization of cells within a particular tissue. Others are transient or temporary such as those between cells of the immune system or the interactions involved in tissue inflammation. These types of intercellular interactions are distinguished from other types such as those between cells and the extracellular matrix. The loss of communication between cells can result in uncontrollable cell growth and cancer.
This glossary of biology terms is a list of definitions of fundamental terms and concepts used in biology, the study of life and of living organisms. It is intended as introductory material for novices; for more specific and technical definitions from sub-disciplines and related fields, see Glossary of cell biology, Glossary of genetics, Glossary of evolutionary biology, Glossary of ecology, Glossary of environmental science and Glossary of scientific naming, or any of the organism-specific glossaries in Category:Glossaries of biology.
A phytobiome consists of a plant (phyto) situated in its specific ecological area (biome), including its environment and the associated communities of organisms which inhabit it. These organisms include all macro- and micro-organisms living in, on, or around the plant including bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, insects, animals, and other plants. The environment includes the soil, air, and climate. Examples of ecological areas are fields, rangelands, forests. Knowledge of the interactions within a phytobiome can be used to create tools for agriculture, crop management, increased health, preservation, productivity, and sustainability of cropping and forest systems.
Plants are exposed to many stress factors such as disease, temperature changes, herbivory, injury and more. Therefore, in order to respond or be ready for any kind of physiological state, they need to develop some sort of system for their survival in the moment and/or for the future. Plant communication encompasses communication using volatile organic compounds, electrical signaling, and common mycorrhizal networks between plants and a host of other organisms such as soil microbes, other plants, animals, insects, and fungi. Plants communicate through a host of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can be separated into four broad categories, each the product of distinct chemical pathways: fatty acid derivatives, phenylpropanoids/benzenoids, amino acid derivatives, and terpenoids. Due to the physical/chemical constraints most VOCs are of low molecular mass, are hydrophobic, and have high vapor pressures. The responses of organisms to plant emitted VOCs varies from attracting the predator of a specific herbivore to reduce mechanical damage inflicted on the plant to the induction of chemical defenses of a neighboring plant before it is being attacked. In addition, the host of VOCs emitted varies from plant to plant, where for example, the Venus Fly Trap can emit VOCs to specifically target and attract starved prey. While these VOCs typically lead to increased resistance to herbivory in neighboring plants, there is no clear benefit to the emitting plant in helping nearby plants. As such, whether neighboring plants have evolved the capability to "eavesdrop" or whether there is an unknown tradeoff occurring is subject to much scientific debate. As related to the aspect of meaning-making, the field is also identified as phytosemiotics.
Plant root exudates are fluids emitted through the roots of plants. These secretions influence the rhizosphere around the roots to inhibit harmful microbes and promote the growth of self and kin plants.
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