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.