By Christina Agapakis
Can plants do math? That is the assertion of a new paper published in the journaleLifethis week titled “Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night.” The plants in question aren’t spitting out numerical answers to word problems on their leaves, but doing normal plant stuff: using energy stored as starch at different rates depending on environmental conditions. Plants get their energy from sunlight, so at night the rate of starch consumption has to be smooth in order to maintain energy until dawn and prevent a “sugar crash.” The researchers found in a previous study that that plants will consume their starch almost completely every night and that the rate of consumption will stay mostly constant after “sunset,” regardless of whether the lights go out earlier or later than the plant “expects” based on their circadian rhythm. Based on these results, the researchers proposed a mathematical model whereby the plants are “dividing” the level of starch stores by the number of hours until dawn in order to determine the proper rate of consumption.
