Just as the human brain prioritizes high-reward memories, a new study by researchers from the Australian National University used genetic studies to reveal that plants may be able to reset memories that are not useful, a process that can be likened to be forgetting things after they have been stored, as reported in a press release.
In the past, studies have shown that plants can "remember" events such as droughts in order to help them adapt and survive similar conditions in the future. Additional studies have shown that this process involves DNA, due to the ability of plants to pass these memories to their offspring, although the exact mechanism of this process was hazy.
Now, the new study sheds light on this process by revealing that plants create a specific protein that allows them to create a memory, and this protein impacts its DNA in order to impact future generations. This sequence is part of RNA decay, a process whereby strands of DNA are transcribed into RNA before they are translated into proteins. The team claims that it is this process that determines the amount of RNA molecules that are turned into proteins, and thus any disruption of it will prevent memory formation, which may also get rid of prior memories.
The process of plants "forgetting" is useful because memory formation requires resources - for example, plants thriving in areas that do not experience drought should release memories that deal with drought survival in order to conserve energy.
In addition to the memory acquisition and removal described above, the team also found a short-term memory process that is not reliant upon DNA or RNA, although further studies will need to be conducted to better understand it.
The findings were published in the Feb. 19 issue of Science Advances.
