The researchers aren’t quite sure what the plants use the sodium for, but it may help maintain water balance inside cell walls.Just played through campaign 2 yesterday. The new study also found evidence that the plants consume sodium from their prey. During that time, the plants scarf up carbon, nitrogen, phosphate and sulfur. After a total of five taps, the glands on the inside of the trap received the message that they needed to start making enzymes to digest the meal.ĭigestion itself takes five to 12 days, depending on the size of the meal. The next few touches simulated the prey struggling to escape the green “stomach” in which it had become entrapped. After a first touch, the trap stayed open. Jennifer Böhm of the Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Würzburg, Germany, and colleagues simulated the landing of an insect on the trap with an electrode and then monitored how the plants responded. The study appears January 21 in Current Biology. But then what happens? New research shows that a Venus flytrap needs at least three more touches to turn on the genes responsible for those insect-digesting enzymes. Scientists had figured out that it takes two taps, in rapid succession, on tiny sensor hairs within the trap to initiate closing. After an insect taps sensor hairs twice in a row, the Venus flytrap quickly shuts its trap. Too many false alarms and the plant won’t have enough energy to survive, let alone grow or produce seeds. And traps don’t last forever they fall off after several closures or partial closures and have to be regrown. That’s because the process of shutting the trap and producing digestive enzymes consumes energy. It needs to close only when prey is inside. But a flytrap can’t just snap shut anytime something, like a drop of rain, touches it.
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