Abstract: The phenomenon that plants could perceive sound and communicate with each other has always been of interest to the academic community. Since the 1960s, scientists have explored the response of plants to sound as well as the pathways and mechanisms of related signaling using a variety of technical means. Numerous scientific experiments have confirmed that sound is an external mechanical force, and like other mechanical stimuli (e.g., wind, rain, touch, and vibration), regulating plant growth and development while activating signature cellular defense mechanism events during adversity response, such as scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS), primary metabolic alterations, and hormonal signals. This defense mechanism plays an important role against herbivores, pests, pathogens, and environmental changes by activating changes in its behavior through the production of compounds or substances that cause signaling cascades (the major transduction processes involving the transduction of plant signals and transmembrane transformations, plant intercellular signaling, and physiological and biochemical responses of plant cells) in response to external stimuli such as sound. We systematically analyzed the research progress during the period of 1965-2022 on the effects and mechanistic impacts of sound on plants, combed the current research methodologies in plant acoustics, and proposed new concepts and perspectives such as acoustic stimulation of chemosensitization in plants. The aim of this review was to promote the inter-disciplinary research among the disciplines of acoustic ecology, audiomechanics, and plant physiology. We further elaborated the specific implementation path and application prospects of sound in promoting plant growth, yield quality, etc., aiming to effectively exploring the processes and pathways affecting plant life from “living” sound and to provide a theoretical basis for the construction of sound plant factories in the future.

Key words: sound, plant bioacoustics, plant acoustic control, living music