Mealworm inside a Venus flytrapWIKIMEDIA, BEATRICE MURCHDionaea muscipula, commonly known as the Venus flytrap, makes up for living in low-quality soil by supplementing its diet with nitrogen-rich insect prey. Scientists in Germany have found that the mechanical and physiological behavior of the flytraps is tightly regulated by how many times the trap’s small, mechanosensitive hairs are triggered to produce action potentials. Their findings were published last week (January 21) in Current Biology.
“The number of action potentials informs [the plant] about the size and nutrient content of the struggling prey,” said Rainer Hedrich of the University of Würzburg, Germany, in a press release. “This allows the Venus flytrap to balance the cost and benefit of hunting.”
To investigate the plant’s regulation of prey capture and digestion, the researchers attached surface electrodes to the inside lobes of the trap, and then simulated an insect’s movement by tapping the trap’s hairs. They also monitored the expression of genes associated with the manufacture of jasmonate, a hormone that primes glands in Venus flytraps to produce digestive enzymes.
The team found that just a single hair-triggered action potential is enough to prepare the trap, while a second action potential right after ...
