  {"id":28235,"date":"2024-09-03T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/?p=28235"},"modified":"2024-09-03T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T19:03:30","slug":"when-plants-are-predators-uwm-biologist-helps-identify-how-sundews-digest-their-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus\/research-news\/when-plants-are-predators-uwm-biologist-helps-identify-how-sundews-digest-their-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"When plants are predators: 51ÁÔÆæ biologist helps identify how sundews collaborate to digest their prey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The UW-Milwaukee Field Station is hardly the Little Shop of Horrors, but it\u2019s still the home of some fascinating carnivorous plants. Now, thanks in part to a 51ÁÔÆæ biologist, scientists have a better understanding of how those carnivorous plants digest their insect prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>51ÁÔÆæ Biological Sciences Professor Erica Young is part of an international team that studied the microbiome of the plant <em>Drosera<\/em>, commonly known as sundew. Together, these scientists identified a species of fungus, called <em>Acrodontium<\/em>, which is integral in helping sundews digest their prey. Their work was published in August in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41564-024-01766-y\"><em>Nature Microbiology<\/em><\/a> and was shared as a \u201cresearch highlight\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41477-024-01784-y#:~:text=A%20series%20of%20elegant%20experiments,specialization%20as%20a%20plant%20symbiont\"><em>Nature Plants<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Erica-Young-257x300.webp\" alt=\"A headshot of a white woman with blond hair. She wears black-framed glasses, a black shirt, and a necklace.\" class=\"wp-image-28237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Erica-Young-257x300.webp 257w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Erica-Young.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><figcaption>Erica Young<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c(This discovery) tells us a little bit about how collaboration is successful,\u201d Young said. \u201cYou have to collaborate with other types of organisms, and that also provides a way for diversity to be maintained and to thrive. That\u2019s what life on Earth is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sundews need fungus to thrive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people think of carnivorous plants, they\u2019re likely to picture a Venus Flytrap. \u201cI think we have Audrey II to blame for that,\u201d Young laughed, referencing the man-eating plant from the 1986 musical \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, said Young, carnivory as a survival method has cropped up in several different species, including Venus Flytraps, pitcher plants, and sundews, even though these species are not closely related. Each can photosynthesize, but they live in places where there is not much nutrition in the soil. They gain those nutrients instead by consuming &#8216;bugs&#8217;. Each have different methods for trapping their prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sundew of the genus <em>Drosera<\/em> secrete a sticky, sugary substance on their surface hairs that attracts insects. Once an unlucky mosquito or gnat lands on the plant, it gets stuck and can\u2019t fly away. Some sundews can also curl their hairs over the prey to prevent their escape. The plant produces enzymes that help break down insects, including the chitin in insect exoskeletons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But scientists wondered how the plant actually digests insects. A group of researchers from Taiwan led the study by examining genetic information from sundews in Asia, where they found evidence of the role of a fungus called <em>Acrodontium<\/em>. Young examined the <em>Drosera rotundifolia <\/em>that grows at the <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/\">51ÁÔÆæ Field Station<\/a> at the Cedarburg Bog in Saukville, Wisconsin, while other researchers tested plants in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignright uwm-c-img--right uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Sundew-300x281.webp\" alt=\"Plants cover the ground. In the center of the frame are yellow flowers with red, spiky filaments, all growing in a clump. These are sundews.\" class=\"wp-image-28238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Sundew-300x281.webp 300w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/Sundew.webp 513w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>Sundew grow in the Cedarburg near the 51ÁÔÆæ Field Station. Photo courtesy of Erica Young.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn Taiwan, in the UK, and here in Wisconsin, we found the same species of fungus with the sundews, and so we think that this is a very close relationship that they may have been developing for some time,\u201d Young said. Other plants such as legumes have a tight association with bacteria that live in their root nodules. \u201cWe think that this fungus-sundew association \u2026 may be on their way down a path towards symbiosis, which means that both benefit from the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of how humans rely on a microbiome for digesting our food, Young added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we didn\u2019t have bacteria in our gut, we would not do very well in terms of digestion,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s similar \u2013 this particular fungus seems to be really important for helping the sundews break down their prey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sundews look to be a nice home for the fungus. <em>Acrodontium <\/em>is acidophilic, meaning that it prefers acidic conditions in the secretions of a <em>Drosera<\/em>, so gaining a habitat and food from insect prey digestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Research into Pitcher Plants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sundews are not the only carnivorous plant in Cedarburg Bog. With teams of graduate and undergraduate students, Young has spent much of her career at 51ÁÔÆæ studying pitcher plants. Their leaves form a hollow tube that can fill with rainwater, and the plant recruits a community of microbes and mosquito and other larvae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignright uwm-c-img--right uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"228\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/pitcher-plant-228x300.webp\" alt=\"Plants cover the frame. In the center is a long plant whose leaves appear to form a tube shape. This is a pitcher plant.\" class=\"wp-image-28239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/pitcher-plant-228x300.webp 228w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2024\/08\/pitcher-plant.webp 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/><figcaption>A pitcher plant grows near sundew in the Cedarburg Bog. Photo courtesy of Erica Young.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a whole little ecosystem in there, and it\u2019s served as a model for community ecology for a number of decades,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But unlike sundews, she added, pitcher plants don\u2019t produce their own digestive enzymes. So how do they get nutrients from the insects that happen to fall inside of the pitchers? Research across North America shows that pitcher plant microbial communities are critical to prey breakdown. Young and collaborators across the United States are investigating with the help of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=2025337&amp;HistoricalAwards=false\">National Science Foundation grant<\/a> that was awarded in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen these pitchers (first) open, they\u2019re sterile, as far as we understand,\u201d Young said. \u201cWhat is the process of new bacteria coming in? How does the microbial community change over time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using genomic approaches, Young and her colleagues are studying pitcher plants from the Florida panhandle to the northern reaches of Quebec, and even plants in Switzerland. They\u2019ll compare and contrast the plants\u2019 microbiomes to gain more insight into how these micro-ecosystems form and change. Young and her collaborators are analyzing data from transcontinental sampling in 2022, with several manuscripts in preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These plants are less scary than Audrey II \u2013 but they will provide new insights into how flora, fauna, and their microbiomes depend on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters &amp; Science<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UW-Milwaukee Field Station is hardly the Little Shop of Horrors, but it\u2019s still the home of some fascinating carnivorous plants. Now, thanks in part to a 51ÁÔÆæ biologist, scientists have a better understanding of how those carnivorous plants digest &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":28250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1648,1945,1946,1846],"tags":[1859],"class_list":["post-28235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-in-focus-2024","category-in-focus-spotlight","category-research-news","tag-september"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters &amp; Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus\/when-plants-are-predators-uwm-biologist-helps-identify-how-sundews-digest-their-prey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When plants are predators: 51ÁÔÆæ biologist helps identify how sundews collaborate to digest their prey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The UW-Milwaukee Field Station is hardly the Little Shop of Horrors, but it\u2019s still the home of some fascinating carnivorous plants. 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