Plants have all sorts of defense mechanisms, toxins etc, that they've evolved (since they're sitting ducks). Its a reasonable hypothesis that some energetically intensive to produce toxin could have its production induced, for example (the plant wouldn't want to waste energy on producing the toxins when not needed). I believe there are also plants that have been shown to release compounds that attract parasitic wasps to kill the pest. That could also be triggered here, another reasonable hypothesis.

Plants can do amazing things. Think about how our own bodies respond to extreme temperature or to shock. We withdraw vital fluids to the core, or bring certain resources to the site of irritation. Plants certainly do things like this.

The research paper's abstract says this:

>The results show with 90% of accuracy that the electrome registered in the fruit's peduncle before herbivory is different from the electrome during predation on the fruits. Interestingly, there was also a sharp difference in the electrome of the green and ripe fruits' peduncles before, but not during, the herbivory, which demonstrates that the signals generated by the herbivory stand over the others. Biochemical analysis showed that herbivory in the fruit triggered an oxidative response in other parts of the plant.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.6574...

e: side note, this is the software they used for the computation, including Machine Learning.

>The code libraries used were: Numpy and Pandas for data manipulation; Scipy, Obspy and Math for mathematical calculations; Matplotlib for creating graphics; Sklearn and Statsmodels for machine learning.

> In addition, the authors measured the biochemical responses, such as defensive chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, across other parts of the plant. This showed that these defenses were triggered even in parts of the plant that were far away from the damage caused by the caterpillars.

Perhaps it’s just a side effect of some other system in the plant, like an electrical pulse to communicate “the way this branch is growing has little/much sunlight”.

Probably the latter: Taste bad, and possibly become more poisonous for catepilars. It is quite possible to use that electric signal to trigger some chemical reaction that would accomplish this.

The article mentions releasing hydrogen peroxide. Not just in the one fruit being attacked but the other fruit on the plant also released more chemicals.

Fear the creators of Nicotine, Rape drug and lava-hot chilly. They know how to make an animal cry.

Anti nutrients :(