Corn communicates with its neighbours by releasing a gas that prompts nearby plants to alter their soil, a new study has found.

And when corn is densely planted, that can boost defences against pests and predation. But emission of the volatile gas – called linalool – can also reduce maize growth.

The international team of scientists who discovered this mechanism says it offers clues on how the release of linalool could be optimised to combat pests and increase yield.

The researchers from Zhejiang University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Leiden University in the Netherlands and the University of Bern in Switzerland published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Science last week.

To investigate whether planting density affects plant growth and defence through interactions between plants, the team conducted a survey in four maize fields in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan last winter.

“Field surveys revealed that maize plants in the inner rows of densely planted fields suffered less herbivore damage than those at the edges, but that they also had reduced growth,” the researchers said.