Chapter 60 60．Will Nianhuahua cry?

Q Muscle Questionnaire Some vegetarians say it is impossible to look directly into the eyes of an animal as it is being slaughtered.In fact, animals do scream when they are slaughtered.I think they should hurt.So, do plants also have a similar "pain" feeling?For example, when we cut leeks, will leeks hurt?When we tear open a flower, does the flower hurt? A Shi Jun answer muscle roll Under normal circumstances, we all think that plants are insensitive and insensitive.Plants do not have a nervous system that specifically transmits signals like animals, nor do they have control centers that process sensory information like animal brains and ganglia.However, this does not mean that plants are dead wood without feeling, or a pile of carbohydrates that animals eat without pain.More and more studies have shown that plants do have their own feelings and corresponding "little movements".

Well, before we discuss whether plants will have skin pain (it seems that breaking off flowers and leaves is much higher than "cutting skin"), first of all, we need to define what pain is.For animals, when the body is subjected to harmful stimuli (such as cutting, fire, etc.), the tissues in the body will release pain-causing substances (such as potassium ions, histamine, prostaglandins, etc.), and the nerve endings will produce these substances. The pain signal is transmitted to the central nervous system, and pain is felt.After all, it is a signal that the body is in trouble, informing the organism to take action to avoid further damage.

We are now certain that plants, when attacked, also signal the rest of the body to prepare for defense.The generation and transmission process of this signal and the resulting effect are exactly the same as the pain response of animals. When a plant is attacked, the first reaction is to increase the superoxide content of the injured part, and at the same time secrete glucose to form oligosaccharides and amino acid systemin. These chemical molecules slowly diffuse in the plant and activate the plant. defense genes, prompting those twigs and leaves that have not been infested to prepare for defense (such as secretion of cyanide and tannins).Injured leaves also release gas signals such as ethylene, which more quickly transmit "pain" signals to other parts of the body.Incidentally, in addition to the injured plant, neighboring species also receive and recognize such chemical signals and prepare themselves for defense.Plants' "sense of pain" isn't limited to chemicals, however, they also use electrical signals. In 1992, researchers at the University of East Anglia discovered that when the cotyledons of tomato seedlings were frozen in isolation, the cells of other leaves also had synchronous potential changes, that is to say, frostbite information was in the form of electrical signals. spread throughout the seedlings.Although there are no specialized nerve cells in plants, there are channels called plasmodesmata between plant cells.These channels are now thought to play an important role in the conduction of electrical signals.This is similar to the nerve conduction in animals.What's more interesting is that plants seem to understand the severity of "pain".When cabbage is eaten by cabbage caterpillars, the chemical signal released (to attract wasps to pick up the caterpillars) increases with the number of intruders.If you encounter a diamondback moth with a more vicious upper and lower mouth, no matter how many enemies there are, the cabbage will release a high-intensity "distress signal".

Unfortunately, these pain responses of plants have almost no effect on humans. We will predict the response of plants and flee before being retaliated.However, as the spirits of all things, we should be more magnanimous, and don't pick flowers and fold leaves for a moment of pleasure, because they will really hurt.