Aug 15, 2014 12:53 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Scientists have discovered a new and mysterious language that may only belong to plants, which may be an exchange of RNA.

According to the Verge, the researchers have published their work in the journal Science. The newly discovered form of communication may simply be a way for plants to transfer energy between themselves.

A more exciting possibility is that plants are communicating with each other, which the study's authors believe will have agricultural applications.

"The discovery of this novel form of inter-organism communication shows that this is happening a lot more than any one has previously realized," study lead author Jim Westwood, a professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said in a press release. "Now that we have found that they are sharing all this information, the next question is, 'What exactly are they telling each other?'"

For their study, the researchers sequenced and examined tissue samples from tomato samples and strangleweed. The latter is known to attack host plants and their vascular system, though the researchers believe they can use this form of communication to curb the harmful weed.

"It's surprising for a number of reasons," Westwood told the Verge. "The first being that if you think of a parasite as truly being a parasite, you wouldn't expect to see movement of genetic material into the host - just the parasite sucking nutrients from the host."

The researchers believe there are something similar to specific words or commands being exchanged, so the next phase of their work will be to determine what that is.

"Parasitic plants such as witchweed and broomrape are serious problems for legumes and other crops that help feed some of the poorest regions in Africa and elsewhere," Julie Scholes, a professor at the University of Sheffield, U.K. not affiliated with the study, said in the release. "In addition to shedding new light on host-parasite communication, Westwood's findings have exciting implications for the design of novel control strategies based on disrupting the mRNA information that the parasite uses to reprogram the host."

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