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Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)

Carnivorous rainbow plants (Byblis, Byblidaceae, Lamiales) possess sticky flypaper traps for the capture, retention, and digestion of prey (mainly small insects). The trapping system is based on a multitude of millimeter-sized glandular trichomes (also termed stalked glands), which produce adhesive...

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Autores principales: Poppinga, Simon, Knorr, Noah, Ruppert, Sebastian, Speck, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9569831/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36232812
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911514
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author Poppinga, Simon
Knorr, Noah
Ruppert, Sebastian
Speck, Thomas
author_facet Poppinga, Simon
Knorr, Noah
Ruppert, Sebastian
Speck, Thomas
author_sort Poppinga, Simon
collection PubMed
description Carnivorous rainbow plants (Byblis, Byblidaceae, Lamiales) possess sticky flypaper traps for the capture, retention, and digestion of prey (mainly small insects). The trapping system is based on a multitude of millimeter-sized glandular trichomes (also termed stalked glands), which produce adhesive glue drops. For over a century, the trapping system of Byblis was considered passive, meaning that no plant movement is involved. Recently, a remarkable discovery was made: the stalked glands of Byblis are indeed capable of reacting to chemical (protein) stimuli with slow movement responses. This prompted us to investigate this phenomenon further with a series of experiments on the stimulation, kinematics, actuation, and functional morphology of the stalked glands of cultivated Byblis gigantea plants. Measured stalked gland lengths and densities on the trap leaves are similar to the data from the literature. Motion reactions could only be triggered with chemical stimuli, corroborating the prior study on the stalked gland sensitivity. Reaction time (i.e., time from stimulation until the onset of motion) and movement duration are temperature-dependent, which hints towards a tight physiological control of the involved processes. The stalked gland movement, which consist of a sequence of twisting and kinking motions, is rendered possible by the components of the stalk cell wall and is furthermore anatomically and mechanically predetermined by the orientation of cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall. Successive water displacement processes from the stalk cell into the basal cells actuate the movement. The same kinematics could be observed in stalked glands drying in air or submersed in a saturated salt solution. Stimulated and dried stalked glands as well as those from the hypertonic medium were capable of regaining their initial shape by rehydration in water. However, no glue production could be observed afterwards. The long-time overlooked chemonastic movements of stalked glands may help Byblis to retain and digest its prey; however, further research is needed to shed light on the ecological characteristics of the rainbow plant’s trapping system.
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spelling pubmed-95698312022-10-17 Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales) Poppinga, Simon Knorr, Noah Ruppert, Sebastian Speck, Thomas Int J Mol Sci Article Carnivorous rainbow plants (Byblis, Byblidaceae, Lamiales) possess sticky flypaper traps for the capture, retention, and digestion of prey (mainly small insects). The trapping system is based on a multitude of millimeter-sized glandular trichomes (also termed stalked glands), which produce adhesive glue drops. For over a century, the trapping system of Byblis was considered passive, meaning that no plant movement is involved. Recently, a remarkable discovery was made: the stalked glands of Byblis are indeed capable of reacting to chemical (protein) stimuli with slow movement responses. This prompted us to investigate this phenomenon further with a series of experiments on the stimulation, kinematics, actuation, and functional morphology of the stalked glands of cultivated Byblis gigantea plants. Measured stalked gland lengths and densities on the trap leaves are similar to the data from the literature. Motion reactions could only be triggered with chemical stimuli, corroborating the prior study on the stalked gland sensitivity. Reaction time (i.e., time from stimulation until the onset of motion) and movement duration are temperature-dependent, which hints towards a tight physiological control of the involved processes. The stalked gland movement, which consist of a sequence of twisting and kinking motions, is rendered possible by the components of the stalk cell wall and is furthermore anatomically and mechanically predetermined by the orientation of cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall. Successive water displacement processes from the stalk cell into the basal cells actuate the movement. The same kinematics could be observed in stalked glands drying in air or submersed in a saturated salt solution. Stimulated and dried stalked glands as well as those from the hypertonic medium were capable of regaining their initial shape by rehydration in water. However, no glue production could be observed afterwards. The long-time overlooked chemonastic movements of stalked glands may help Byblis to retain and digest its prey; however, further research is needed to shed light on the ecological characteristics of the rainbow plant’s trapping system. MDPI 2022-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9569831/ /pubmed/36232812 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911514 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Poppinga, Simon
Knorr, Noah
Ruppert, Sebastian
Speck, Thomas
Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title_full Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title_fullStr Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title_full_unstemmed Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title_short Chemonastic Stalked Glands in the Carnivorous Rainbow Plant Byblis gigantea LINDL. (Byblidaceae, Lamiales)
title_sort chemonastic stalked glands in the carnivorous rainbow plant byblis gigantea lindl. (byblidaceae, lamiales)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9569831/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36232812
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911514
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