Movement Patterns in Climbing Plants

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore the movement patterns of climbing plants from a pluralistic perspective. This topic has been generally overlooked by researchers, despite Darwin's pioneering experiments on plant behaviour dating back more than 100 years.

Recent studies have shown that climbing plants have evolved flexible strategies to cope with their sessile lifestyle. They exhibit movement patterns to navigate their environment, which is crucial for their survival and reproduction. Climbers perform diverse and finely tuned movements with both above- and below-ground organs to explore, monitor, and colonize their surroundings. Moreover, these movements are tuned to optimize the interplay with the environment. For instance, their support-seeking behaviour enables the efficient use of vertical spaces, while interactions with neighbouring plants highlight their adaptive strategies in both competitive and cooperative contexts.

This Special Issue invites contributions from a variety of perspectives, including behavioural, theoretical, chemical, physiological, and biomechanical ones. The aim is to uncover the full spectrum of movement strategies employed by climbing plants and the underlying signalling pathways and gene expressions that drive these behaviours. From an ecological perspective, climbing plants play a crucial role in shaping forest and open habitat dynamics by efficiently occupying vertical niches, influencing light distribution, and impacting plant competition. Evolutionary approaches will also be considered to understand the mechanisms of natural selection that shape these adaptive behaviours, enhancing plant survival across different environments.

We welcome empirical research, theoretical studies, reviews, and perspectives that contribute to a broader understanding of the evolution, physiology, and ecological impacts of climbing plant behaviours. By adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, we aim to facilitate an open and inclusive debate, advancing our collective understanding of these strategies.

Dr. Silvia Guerra
Dr. Bianca Bonato
Dr. Sara Avesani
Dr. Laura Ravazzolo
Guest Editors

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• motor behaviour
• plant communication 
• plant signalling and behaviour 
• volatile organic compounds 
• root behaviour 
• climbing plants 
• ecology

Biocommunication of Plant Growth and Development

Guenther Witzany

Abstract: Different movement patterns are crucial motifs of plant organisms to reach resources being essential to survive. This must integrate the correct evaluation (interpretation) of information inputs of (i) abiotic circumstances such as gravity, light, water, (ii) the neighboring plants, (iii) the various organisms that are beneficial symbionts such as fungi and soil bacteria, or pests which includes attack and defense strategies and also (iv) intraorganismic communication i.e.,  transcription, translation, immunity, repair and epigenetic markings that are relevant for all regulation processes outlined by an abundance of non-coding RNAs. The coordination of all steps and substeps of plant growth and development needs rather complex organisation of various levels of signaling processes within and between cells, tissues, organs and organisms. As a result we can look at a plant body which integrates all these processes to live and survive representing an unique identity in an environmental niche. If communication processes are successful the plant body will prosper. If communication processes are damaged, distorted or deformed the plant body will have serious problems of health and disease in various forms may be the result.