Tom Bennett

Tom Bennett is Associate Professor in Plant Signalling and Development at the University of Leeds. He is a developmental biologist and geneticist, interested in understanding how long-distance signalling within the plant body allows growth and development to be precisely regulated in both space and time. Tom received his BSc from the University of Leeds, and his PhD from the University of York, working on the regulation of shoot branching under the supervision of Professor Ottoline Leyser. He subsequently worked at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and University of Cambridge, before returning to Leeds to establish his research group. Tom’s research group currently focuses on two main themes. Firstly, on the coordination of reproductive shoot architecture and floral duration by hormonal signals and feedback from developing fruit, and secondly, on the mechanisms by which plants sense their neighbours’ roots, and how this impacts shoot development.

Underground Whispers: Understanding how and why plants communicate in the rhizosphere
Plants must carefully regulate their growth according to the availability of resources in the environment. Neighbouring plants act as direct competition for those resources, and it is therefore very important for plants to be able to detect and respond to the presence of neighbours. Recent work has demonstrated multiple mechanisms by which neighbour detection can occur, but the resulting plant growth responses to neighbour presence are less well understood, partly because our data is patchy, and partly because different species respond differently to the same stimuli. Indeed, plants may also respond differently depending on the genetic identity of the neighbour. It therefore remains unclear what plant growth responses to neighbours aim to achieve. Cooperation? Competition? Or perhaps nothing at all? In this talk, I present recent data from my research group that sheds light on what plants are trying to achieve by emitting plant-plant signals into the rhizosphere, how other plants use these signals to detect their neighbours, and how plants respond to these signals in both short- and long-term timeframes. I present a framework for attempting to understand the adaptive nature of these signals, and the responses to them, and how this might explain the apparent ability of plants to distinguish between kin and non-kin. I also discuss the potential to use this information in agricultural contexts, to breed plants with optimal responses to neighbouring plants.