After analyzing carnivorous plants from Australia, North America and Asia, scientists have found that their digestion mechanism is completely identical, despite the fact that these plants evolved in different places. This suggests that there are certain ways of evolution of such plants. The results were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Researchers compared the genomes of several plants - sarracenia purpurea, pitcher and cephalottus - and concluded that they all performed the same evolutionary trick - using proteins designed to fight diseases and turning them into enzymes that help insects digest. Some of these enzymes allow the insect's solid exoskeleton to dissolve, while others ensure the absorption of nutrients.
The evolutionary lines of the analyzed plants split about 100 million years ago, long before the appearance of predatory tendencies. The authors of the study believe that the impetus for the development of carnivorousness was an insufficiently nutrient-rich environment: after all, most of the future "predators" grew in swamps, stagnant waters, tropical forests, where there is high humidity, which means acidic soil.
On such soils, most plants have metabolic disorders, protein synthesis weakens, and it develops poorly.
The vital activity of soil microorganisms is strongly suppressed, which means that the formation of such vital nutrients as nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements is weakened. In addition, there is an overabundance of some trace elements and a lack of others.
In such conditions, plants have learned to receive the missing nutrition outside the soil. Of course, their evolution lasted for many years and led to the unusual possibilities of green predators. Most likely, they had other options, but feeding on insects turned out to be the most beneficial.
By the way, as she said, in addition to the well-known fruit-eating plants that catch their victims above the soil, there is another type of green predators that "hunt" underground. This small desert plant of the plantain family lives in the arid regions of Brazil. This discovery stunned scientists, because before no one could suspect a modest flower in carnivorous addictions.
The fact that the plant is a predator, in particular, was indicated by its leaves, equipped with glands that secrete a sticky substance. Scientists have found that members of this genus hide their sticky leaves under the sand. The main object of their hunt is the nematode roundworms. The sticky substance secreted by the glands mentioned above serves to digest these creatures.
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