Authors: Jaroslav Michalko Peter Socha Patrik Mészáros Alžbeta Blehová Jana Libantová Jana Moravčíková Ildikó Matušíková
Publish Date: 2013/07/06
Volume: 238, Issue: 4, Pages: 715-725
Abstract
Carnivory in plants evolved as an adaptation strategy to nutrientpoor environments Thanks to specialized traps carnivorous plants can gain nutrients from various heterotrophic sources such as small insects Digestion in traps requires a coordinated action of several hydrolytic enzymes that break down complex substances into simple absorbable nutrients Among these several pathogenesisrelated proteins including β13glucanases have previously been identified in digestive fluid of some carnivorous species Here we show that a single acidic endoβ13glucanase of ~50 kDa is present in the digestive fluid of the flypapertrapped sundew Drosera rotundifolia L The enzyme is inducible with a complex plant βglucan laminarin from which it releases simple saccharides when supplied to leaves as a substrate Moreover thinlayer chromatography of digestive exudates showed that the simplest degradation products especially glucose are taken up by the leaves These results for the first time point on involvement of β13glucanases in digestion of carnivorous plants and demonstrate the uptake of saccharidebased compounds by traps Such a strategy could enable the plant to utilize other types of nutritional sources eg pollen grains fungal spores or detritus from environment Possible multiple roles of β13glucanases in the digestive fluid of carnivorous sundew are also discussedThis work was supported by the grant from the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA No 2/0090/14 and MVTS COST FA1006 Financial support for P Socha was provided by the Operational Programme Research and Development for the project “Implementation of the research of plant genetic resources and its maintaining in the sustainable management of Slovak republic” ITMS 26220220097 cofinanced from the resources of the European Union Fund for Regional Development We are thankful to Dr Ľubomír Adamec Institute of Botany AS Czech Republic for helpful discussions and critical reviewing of the manuscript
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