Discovering plants to do super maths

New research by scientists at the John Innes Center (UK) shows that plants have performed complex arithmetic operations to ensure they have the nutrients they need to live overnight.

Spring buds are silhouetted against the Moon in Washington, USA.

Plants cannot perform chemical reactions that synthesize nutrients at night because of the lack of solar energy (sunlight). Therefore, they must calculate the amount of energy they need to store and adjust the rate of consumption to survive at night.

Martin Howard, mathematician of the John Innes Center (JIC), said: "Plants can adjust the rate of starch consumption to prevent lack of nutrients at night. This is a clear example of a Complex arithmetic operations in basic biological processes ".

At night, the structure inside the leaves measures the amount of starch stored and estimates the time from that time until dawn. Information about time comes from an internal clock, similar to the human biological clock.

Alison Smith, a JIC biologist, said: "The ability to calculate arithmetic is very important for plant growth and productivity. Learn about how plants continue to grow in the dark can suggest Give us new ways to increase crop productivity ".