To catch his prey, Flytrap Venus sends quick electrical impulses that are generated in response to touch or tension. But the molecular identity of the sensory sensor remained unclear. Japanese scientists identified the molecular mechanism that launches this answer and published its work in the new article in the journal Nature Communications.
How Previously reportedFlytrap Venus attracts its prey with a pleasant fruit aroma. When the insect lands on the sheet, this stimulates highly sensitive trigger hair that level the leaf. When the pressure becomes strong enough to bend these hair, the plant will close the leaves and delay the insect inside. Long cilia capture and hold the insect in place, just like fingers, when the plant begins to secrete digestive juices. The insect slowly breaks down for five-12 days, after which the trap opens again, freeing the dried husk of the insect into the wind.
In 2016Rainer Hedrich, biophysicist in Julius-Maximilian-Juniweversitat Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, headed the team that I found it Flytrap Venus can actually “count” how many times something applies to its leaves with laying hairs capacity, which helps the plant distinguish between the presence of prey and small nut or stone or even dead insects. The plant discovers the first “action potential”, but does not immediately end, waiting until the second Zap confirms the presence of actual production, after which the trap is closed. But Flytrap Venros does not completely close and produces digestive enzymes to consume prey until the hair is launched three more times (a total of five stimuli).
AND in 2023Scientists have developed a bioelectronic device to better understand the complex alarm mechanism Venus Flytrap, displaying how these signals spread. They confirmed That the electric signal begins in the sensory hairs of the plant, and then spreads radially outward without a clear preferred direction. And sometimes the signals were spontaneous, arising in sensory hairs, which were not stimulated.
Green glow
This last study is the result of 2020 paper, describing in detail how Japanese authors Genetically changed Venus Flitrape to get important tips about how the short -term “memory” of the plant works. They introduced a calcium sensor, called GCAMP6, which glows green when it binds to calcium. This green fluorescence allowed the team to visually track changes in calcium concentration in response to stimulating sensitive hairs with a needle. They came to the conclusion that the wax and the weakening of calcium concentrations in the cells of the leaves, apparently, serves as a kind of short-term memory for the flying fee of Venus, although it was precisely how the concentrations of calcium work with the electric network of the plant that remained unclear.
