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Plants also communicate via electrical signals, which is explored in Calvo et al. 2017. These electrical signals are mediated by cytosolic Ca2+ ions. Cytosolic calcium signals are mediated by hundreds of protein and protein kinases, and many of the signals also induce action potentials in plants. The phloem of the plant serves as the pathway for electrical communication, and as the plant grows and learns from its past, the phloem becomes increasingly cross linked. Electrical signals may be transmitted to other cells connected by symplasts through plasmodesmata. Plants respond to various environmental cues and elicit electrical responses internally to alter the function of the plant body. This can range from avoiding predation, releasing defense mechanisms, responding to changing temperature, changing growth direction, and sharing nutrients in the soil. This form of memory stored in the plant's phloem allows it to better respond to similar stimuli in the future and shows how electrical signaling allows a plant to communicate with itself and alter its own physiology to better suit certain environmental cues (Calvo et al. 2017).