5 CONCLUSIONS
Allelopathic interference and its ecological implications in natural and
managed ecosystems have been well established. Recent efforts have made
considerable progress towards understanding kin recognition in
plant-plant interactions. Nevertheless, the role of kin recognition in
mediating allelopathic interference remains largely unknown. This study
showed that kin recognition may alter the consequences of allelopathic
rice interference with paddy weeds. In particular, altruistic responses
to kin recognition in rice may contribute to allelopathic interference
with paddy weeds. We showed that
genetic relatedness allows
allelopathic plants to discriminate neighboring collaborators or
competitors and adjust their growth, competitiveness and chemical
defense accordingly. This work greatly
improves our understanding of
plant neighbor detection by integrating response strategies to
intraspecific and interspecific interactions. However, such
responsiveness needs to be explored in other plant systems to determine
whether is a general phenomenon or is restricted to allelopathic rice
interference with paddy weeds. A
thorough understanding of the mechanisms and interactions between
intraspecific kin recognition and interspecific allelopathy may offer
many ecological implications and potential applications for sustainable
agriculture.