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Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle

The evolutionary roots of carnivory in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) stem from a defense response to plant injury caused by, e.g., herbivores. Dionaea muscipula aka. Darwin’s most wonderful plant underwent extensive modification of leaves into snap-traps specialized for prey capture. Even th...

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Autores principales: Durak, Grażyna M., Speck, Thomas, Poppinga, Simon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9478607/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36119615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.970320
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author Durak, Grażyna M.
Speck, Thomas
Poppinga, Simon
author_facet Durak, Grażyna M.
Speck, Thomas
Poppinga, Simon
author_sort Durak, Grażyna M.
collection PubMed
description The evolutionary roots of carnivory in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) stem from a defense response to plant injury caused by, e.g., herbivores. Dionaea muscipula aka. Darwin’s most wonderful plant underwent extensive modification of leaves into snap-traps specialized for prey capture. Even the tiny seedlings of the Venus flytrap already produce fully functional, millimeter-sized traps. The trap size increases as the plant matures, enabling capture of larger prey. The movement of snap-traps is very fast (~100–300 ms) and is actuated by a combination of changes in the hydrostatic pressure of the leaf tissue with the release of prestress (embedded energy), triggering a snap-through of the trap lobes. This instability phenomenon is facilitated by the double curvature of the trap lobes. In contrast, trap reopening is a slower process dependent on trap size and morphology, heavily reliant on turgor and/or cell growth. Once a prey item is caught, the trap reconfigures its shape, seals itself off and forms a digestive cavity allowing the plant to release an enzymatic cocktail to draw nutrition from its captive. Interestingly, a failed attempt to capture prey can come at a heavy cost: the trap can break during reopening, thus losing its functionality. In this mini-review, we provide a detailed account of morphological adaptations and biomechanical processes involved in the trap movement during D. muscipula hunting cycle, and discuss possible reasons for and consequences of trap breakage. We also provide a brief introduction to the biological aspects underlying plant motion and their evolutionary background.
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spelling pubmed-94786072022-09-17 Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle Durak, Grażyna M. Speck, Thomas Poppinga, Simon Front Plant Sci Plant Science The evolutionary roots of carnivory in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) stem from a defense response to plant injury caused by, e.g., herbivores. Dionaea muscipula aka. Darwin’s most wonderful plant underwent extensive modification of leaves into snap-traps specialized for prey capture. Even the tiny seedlings of the Venus flytrap already produce fully functional, millimeter-sized traps. The trap size increases as the plant matures, enabling capture of larger prey. The movement of snap-traps is very fast (~100–300 ms) and is actuated by a combination of changes in the hydrostatic pressure of the leaf tissue with the release of prestress (embedded energy), triggering a snap-through of the trap lobes. This instability phenomenon is facilitated by the double curvature of the trap lobes. In contrast, trap reopening is a slower process dependent on trap size and morphology, heavily reliant on turgor and/or cell growth. Once a prey item is caught, the trap reconfigures its shape, seals itself off and forms a digestive cavity allowing the plant to release an enzymatic cocktail to draw nutrition from its captive. Interestingly, a failed attempt to capture prey can come at a heavy cost: the trap can break during reopening, thus losing its functionality. In this mini-review, we provide a detailed account of morphological adaptations and biomechanical processes involved in the trap movement during D. muscipula hunting cycle, and discuss possible reasons for and consequences of trap breakage. We also provide a brief introduction to the biological aspects underlying plant motion and their evolutionary background. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9478607/ /pubmed/36119615 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.970320 Text en Copyright © 2022 Durak, Speck and Poppinga. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Durak, Grażyna M.
Speck, Thomas
Poppinga, Simon
Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title_full Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title_fullStr Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title_full_unstemmed Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title_short Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
title_sort shapeshifting in the venus flytrap (dionaea muscipula): morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9478607/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36119615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.970320
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