You see tons of timelapses on youtube of people putting fruits and vegetables into ground and filming them grow. Every time the surrounding fruit rots away and gets covered in mold, but the plant starts growing anyway.
I understand that the seeds are very durable, but how come mold doesn’t do any damage to the sapling? Can mold even damage it at all?
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The sapling part is growing and is very much alive. As such, it has defensive mechanisms to protect itself against bacteria and other agents.
Adding to that, a fruit is much more rich in nutrients than a saplings, and those agents thrive better on the former than on the latter.
Most moulds are relatively weak when compared to living tissue, so the sapling is not able to be consumed by the fungus while the dead fruit is eaten as each cell succumbs to the attack by the mould
However some moulds can break down the saplings defences and can kill it
How I’d explain it to a 5 year old:
You know how when you get sick you are only sick for a couple days and start to feel better. It’s because your body can fight off the germs. But sometimes we need to go to the doctor to get better. That’s because some germs are strong enough that our bodies can’t fight them off themselves. The growing sapling is like you when you get sick for only a couple days, the fruit is like someone who needs to go to the doctor. Without help the germs win
The sapling has an immune system. The mold can damage it but it has to overcome this immune system first.
The rest of the fruit generally does not have an immune system.
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