On Roots
In February this year, we had a surprise cold wave in Texas that was very destructive. The temperatures dropped lower than normal and stayed below freezing for several days. The demand for heating surged but the natural gas power plants couldn’t keep operating due to the weather induced issues. The cold weather froze the gas pipelines and the compressors, making a bad situation far worse. Consumers had no time to prepare for an outage. Announcements were made that there would be rolling outages, but the demand rapidly increased as the temperatures fell below 20 deg F. Fearing a collapse of the power grid the utilities started cutting power randomly. Many lost power for more than seventy two hours. Those with poorly insulated homes suffered further bruising due to burst pipes that further damaged their homes. People were barely able to stay warm inside their homes and many Texans struggled to turn on their fireplaces that they had not used for many years.
We can only imagine how bad it was outside. The plants and trees in Texas are not cold hardy. They can barely withstand freezing weather for a few hours. The impact of this arctic blast was widespread and no species was spared. Flowering hibiscus, beautiful palms, evergreen bushes, citrus trees, pear trees, banana plants all were decimated. When the temperatures returned to normal after five days all you could see was devastation everywhere (the picture below shows cold induced necrosis in the palm trees in my neighborhood).
Mother Nature was playing games turning a beautiful landscape that was plush green to a pallid spectacle in a matter of days. It was truly disappointing to lose so many plants despite having covered the roots with mulch and wrapping plant in a blanket ( below is a picture of evergreen bushes and hibiscus wrapped in a blanket, just before the arrival of the storm).
The brutal arctic weather that descended on us in Texas was unforgiving. We were left wondering if any of the vegetation would spring back.
It’s been four months since that storm and it’s amazing how the vegetation has recovered. Except citrus varieties ( lemon, lime, oranges ) and queen palms almost all the other plants are growing back. Roses are back in full bloom and have more flowers on them than normal. Our moringa tree is growing back with renewed vigor. The bushes have shed their brown leaves and have started sprouting new leaves. The banana plants with numerous shoots are already taller than my fence. The guava plant is three foot tall and our plumcot tree which shed all its leaves was covered with lovely white flowers before the leaves grew back. This transformation of the natural landscape was truly fascinating to witness.
As I witnessed this transformation around me, it became apparent that the plants owe a large part of their existence to their root systems. Curiosity got the better sense of me and I started to research this further. It turns out the browning of the leaves or necrosis at the onset of the cold weather is not debilitating. In most cases the plant will fully recover once the weather system passes through. When the weather goes below freezing the plants suffer a frost bite a type of shock that could take them up-to a year to recover from. But both these do no impact the plants apical meristem that houses the stem cells that are regenerating the plants leaves and stems and flowers and fruits. When the temperature drops below freezing and stays there for a significant amount of time the plant is said to have been subject to a hard frost. Based on the duration of the hard frost and the type of plant, the plants apical meristem could get damaged. When this happens the plant will not be able to regenerate itself after the frost. The plants apical meristem has pluripotent stem cells that are capable of regenerating different types of plant cells and essentially giving the plant a new life.
I couldn’t help but wonder how this aspect of nature worked in other living organisms. Could we revive life in humans after injuries caused by weather or disease or accidents in much the same way as the plants recovered from the freeze? How cool would that be? Perhaps the human quest for immortality could be accomplished in a very different way. If only the human genetic make up was like plants we would be able regenerate tissue and organs after being literally cut down to our roots. Just pause and think for a moment on the significance of that thought. We often talk about our roots in the context of our morals, ethics, culture, etc. but never once have we imagined the ability to regenerate ourselves after being cut down to our roots.
Just humor me for a few minutes while we imagine what really are the roots in our self. Philosophers talk about the human soul as that which gives life to the physical human being. They say our soul is immortal and is distinct from our body, mind and intellect. This soul they say is immortal that transmigrated when the physical body dies into a different being. Unlike a plant this soul is not rooted physically in a place but is mobile and can move around. Although that sounds cool the analogy does not appear to be accurate as this soul seems to transcend the physical being in us.
What part of our body, mind or intellect if left un-damaged could help regenerate the rest of our physical being. Analogous to the plants root system is our bones that give our body structure and support our body frame. But it turns out just like in the case of plants, it’s the stem cells the undifferentiated cell type that can reproduce indefinitely that can regenerate tissue. Humans have two types of stem cells the embryonic stem cells that are pluripotent ( capable of forming all types of cells ) which are similar to those found in a plants apical meristem and adult stem cells that are found in our different organ system that are multi potent, i.e, they are only capable of regenerating specific types of cells. Per the Mayo Clinic some fascinating research is being done in regenerative therapy that has identified pluripotency in adult stem cells. Investigation are underway to see how to use genetic engineering to induce production of certain types of tissues, say heart cells as well as cloning to recreate embryonic stem cells that will not be rejected by the human body. Clearly a fascinating field where humans are trying to recreate a plant ecosystem in our bodies that will help us recover from diseases and could potentially arrest cell defects that happen as we age due to errors in reproduction. Imagine a world in the future where like a plant recovering from a hard frost humans can recover from disease, accidents, pandemics and arrest ageing. Clearly wishful thinking but maybe evolution if not scientific revolution will make this happen.
