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REPURPOSING OLD MACHINERY. "Many biologists suspect ancestors of carnivorous plants evolved by adapting mechanisms normally used to detect and defend against herbivores. Experiments showed that the flytrap digests its prey with the same kind digestive enzymes that other plants use to ward off insects. A few hours after catching prey, the flytrap turns on another set of familiar genes to absorb nutrients; many of these genes are expressed in the roots of other plants." https://lnkd.in/epbzadB View in LinkedIn

MICROBIOME OF CARNIVOROUS PLANTS. "The opportunistic feeding behavior, to catch and utilize various prey, provides Genlisea plants alternative N- and P- macronutrient sources from microbes. The abundance of bacteria involved in nitrogen cycling (ammonia oxidizing, nitrite reducing and nitrogen fixation) indicates their importance for the gain of N- nutrients. In addition, various transporters for different N- forms such as ammonium, nitrate, amino acids and oligopeptides together with transcription factors involved in cellular nitrogen metabolism are highly up-regulated in Genlisea rhizophylls." https://lnkd.in/e7w_sxr View in LinkedIn

ULTRASOUND REFLECTOR. "A carnivorous plant features an ultrasound reflector attractive for mutualistic bats. This reflector enables the bats to easily find and identify the plant’s pitchers. The bats fertilize these Paleotropical plants with feces in exchange for roosts. Such reflectors were convergently acquired in Neotropical bat-pollinated plants." https://lnkd.in/ecwdnWm View in LinkedIn

ALTERNATIVE MECHANISM. "Rapid closure is brought about by a combination of elastic properties and biochemical/biophysical changes in the motor cells. However, unlike animal neuronal action potentials in which Na+/Ca2+ ions carry the depolarizing phase of the action potential, the rapid depolarization component of the Venus flytrap action potential is most likely brought about by the opening of rapid (R-type) anion channels since plants lack the voltage-sensitive cation channels that characterise animal excitability." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221300849X View in LinkedIn

PLANT CONDUCTION. "The immediate and rapid snapping shut of the trap is a perfect demonstration of a sensory-motor system that involves neither nerves nor muscles. It has been known for some time that the mechanism underlying the closure of the trap involves the generation of very fast electrical depolarizations in the form of action potentials by the cells of the trigger hairs which lead to the rapid closure of the trap." (Venus Fly Trap). https://lnkd.in/esfixKj View in LinkedIn

CARNIVOROUS PLANT CONDUCTION. "They exhibit rapid trap movements and their traps contain numerous glands. Spontaneous generation of spikes with quite uniform shape, propagating across the recording area, has been observed for all types of sample. In the analysis of the electrical network, higher richer synchronous activity was observed relative to other plant species and organs previously described in the literature." https://lnkd.in/eVTKbBi View in LinkedIn

PLANT ELECTRICITY. "Electrical signals are believed to mediate intracellular, intercellular and interorgan communication within all plant systematic levels, from algae and bryophytes to vascular plants." https://lnkd.in/eVTKbBi View in LinkedIn

PLANT ACTION POTENTIALS. "The majority of cells in different plant species are electrically active and excitable, being able to release and propagate action potentials (APs). These electrical signals even influence principal physiological processes such as photosynthesis and respiration." https://lnkd.in/eVTKbBi View in LinkedIn

"ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA in single plant cells are to a great extent very similar to those occurring in animal cells. All plant cells actively maintain an electrical cell membrane potential difference of −30 to −250 mV between the vacuole or cytosol and the external medium." https://lnkd.in/eVTKbBi View in LinkedIn

TWO WAY STREET. "There is downward causation from the organism to the gene, not just as we assume, upward causation, from the gene to the organism. The reductionist agenda is incorrect. You are in the wrong box." (Professor Nobel on his book, the Music of Life). https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/denis-noble View in LinkedIn