Study
Kin recognition affects plant communication and defence
Karban, Richard; Shiojiri, Kaori; Ishizaki, Satomi; Wetzel, William C.; Evans, Richard Y.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2013
Sagebrush plants in the field received clipped branches from genetically related or unrelated individuals, and subsequent herbivore damage over the season was recorded.
- Studied in
- Artemisia tridentata
- Sample size
- sagebrush plants exposed to volatiles from related and unrelated donors
Plants responded more strongly to volatile cues from close relatives than from unrelated individuals, sustaining less damage when the cue came from kin.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Sagebrush volatile blends vary genetically, and plants respond preferentially to cues resembling their own — a form of kin recognition.
How NatureHQ reads it
The mechanism proposed here is deflationary in a helpful way. A plant need not recognise anything: if volatile blends are heritable and a plant is most responsive to a blend resembling its own, kin-biased response falls out automatically. That is self-matching, not recognition of another, and it is a good illustration of why an effect that looks social can have a wholly non-social mechanism.
- One species; the generality of volatile blend heritability is unclear.
- Kin and blend similarity are confounded by design, which is also the proposed mechanism.
- Field damage is a noisy measure with many other influences.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: The Royal SocietyPublished by the Royal Society.
doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.3062
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.