Quite a few reasons for calling carnivores 'the most wonderful plants in the world' |
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Authors: | Król Elzbieta Płachno Bartosz J Adamec Lubomír Stolarz Maria Dziubińska Halina Trebacz Kazimierz |
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Affiliation: | 1Department of Biophysics, Institute of Biology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland;2Department of Plant Cytology and Embryology, Jagiellonian University, Grodzka 52, 31-044 Cracow, Poland;3Institute of Botany AS CR, Dukelská 135, 37982 Třeboň, Czech Republic |
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Abstract: | BackgroundA plant is considered carnivorous if it receives any noticeable benefit from catching small animals. The morphological and physiological adaptations to carnivorous existence is most complex in plants, thanks to which carnivorous plants have been cited by Darwin as ‘the most wonderful plants in the world’. When considering the range of these adaptations, one realizes that the carnivory is a result of a multitude of different features.ScopeThis review discusses a selection of relevant articles, culled from a wide array of research topics on plant carnivory, and focuses in particular on physiological processes associated with active trapping and digestion of prey. Carnivory offers the plants special advantages in habitats where nutrient supply is scarce. Counterbalancing costs are the investments in synthesis and the maintenance of trapping organs and hydrolysing enzymes. With the progress in genetic, molecular and microscopic techniques, we are well on the way to a full appreciation of various aspects of plant carnivory.ConclusionsSufficiently complex to be of scientific interest and finite enough to allow conclusive appraisal, carnivorous plants can be viewed as unique models for the examination of rapid organ movements, plant excitability, enzyme secretion, nutrient absorption, food-web relationships, phylogenetic and intergeneric relationships or structural and mineral investment in carnivory. |
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Keywords: | Carnivorous plants model plants traps rapid organ movements gland functioning nutrient absorption action potentials plant excitability plant indicators |
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