LONDON-Scientists have unravelled the secrets behind the mysterious mechanisms that take place in the ‘green stomach’ of a Venus flytrap.
Once an insect has become ensnared in the plant’s trapping structure, repeated contact with its sensory hairs sets off a series of secretions to decompose the flytrap’s prey and soak up nutrients.
While researchers have long suspected such events may be at play, this is the first time the phenomenon has been measured and analyzed, revealing a sequence of signals that activate the enzymes.
In the new study, an international team of researchers found that, once the prey is captured, any contact with the sensory ‘hairs’ will trigger an electrical signal.
This, in turn, travels across the trap in waves. When the signal has been set off for a third time, the flytrap produces a hormone called jasmonate.
And, after the fifth, digestive glands along the inside of the trap are activated. At this point, the gland cells increasingly produce liquid-filled membranous bubbles, known as secretory vesicles.
This process occurs both when the sensory hairs have been tripped, and when the glands come into contact with the jasmonate.
According to the researchers, the whole process is dependent on calcium influx, and a few key proteins.
In addition, they found that genes are activated in the glands.