Metabolic signatures accompany exploratory movement in climbing plants
- 1Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
- 2Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
Climbing plants rely on exploratory movements to locate and reach supports in the environment. Circumnutation is central to this exploratory behavior, yet little is known about the physiological signaling dynamics that accompany this movement. Here we show that the presence or absence of a climbing support is associated with distinct volatile organic compounds (VOCs) intensity profiles in Pisum sativum plants. Using temporal analyses aligned with circumnutation cycles, we detected distinct VOCs patterns in plants growing with or without a potential support in the surrounding environment, even before physical contact occurs. Overall VOCs intensity and the coupling between VOCs signals and circumnutation movement descriptors were higher when supports were absent. This pattern suggests that support-seeking movements are associated with metabolic changes that are in line with early physiological adjustment associated with the environmental context. Our findings identify a previously undescribed association between VOCs dynamics and circumnutation modulation during support searching in climbing plants.
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BibTeX
@article{simonetti2026metabolic,
title = {{Metabolic signatures accompany exploratory movement in climbing plants}},
author = {Valentina Simonetti and Silvia Guerra and Sara Avesani and Bianca Bonato and Marco Dadda and Laura Ravazzolo and Gabriela Gjinaj and Umberto Castiello},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0361761},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361761},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Metabolic signatures accompany exploratory movement in climbing plants
AU - Valentina Simonetti
AU - Silvia Guerra
AU - Sara Avesani
AU - Bianca Bonato
AU - Marco Dadda
AU - Laura Ravazzolo
AU - Gabriela Gjinaj
AU - Umberto Castiello
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0361761
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361761
AB - Climbing plants rely on exploratory movements to locate and reach supports in the environment. Circumnutation is central to this exploratory behavior, yet little is known about the physiological signaling dynamics that accompany this movement. Here we show that the presence or absence of a climbing support is associated with distinct volatile organic compounds (VOCs) intensity profiles in Pisum sativum plants. Using temporal analyses aligned with circumnutation cycles, we detected distinct VOCs patterns in plants growing with or without a potential support in the surrounding environment, even before physical contact occurs. Overall VOCs intensity and the coupling between VOCs signals and circumnutation movement descriptors were higher when supports were absent. This pattern suggests that support-seeking movements are associated with metabolic changes that are in line with early physiological adjustment associated with the environmental context. Our findings identify a previously undescribed association between VOCs dynamics and circumnutation modulation during support searching in climbing plants.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -