Enzyme activities in two sister-species of carnivorous pitcher plants (Nepenthes) with contrasting nutrient sequestration strategies

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15310%2F21%3A73607674" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15310/21:73607674 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0981942821000619" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0981942821000619</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2021.01.049" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.plaphy.2021.01.049</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Enzyme activities in two sister-species of carnivorous pitcher plants (Nepenthes) with contrasting nutrient sequestration strategies

Original language description

The carnivorous pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes usually attract, capture and digest arthropod prey to obtain mineral nutrients. But few members of the genus have evolved specialized nutrient sequestration strategies to acquire nitrogen from the faeces and urine of mutualistic mammals, which they attract. Because the plants obtain significant amounts of nitrogen in a more available form, we hypothesized that they have relaxed the production of digestive enzymes. If so, species that digest mammal faeces should show fewer digestive enzymes than closely related species that rely on arthropods. We tested this hypothesis by comparing digestive enzymes in 1) Nepenthes hemsleyana, whose pitchers serve as roosts for the mutualistic woolly bat Kerivoula hardwickii, which also defecate inside the pitchers, and 2) the close relative Nepenthes rafflesiana, a typical arthropod capturing species.To investigate the dynamics of aspartic proteases (nepenthesin I and II) and type III and IV chitinases in both species, we conducted qPCR, western blotting, mass spectrometry, and enzyme activity measurements. We found that mRNA in pitcher tissue and enzyme abundance in the digestive fluid is upregulated in both species in response to faeces and insect feeding. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, the final nepenthesin proteolytic activity in the digestive fluid is higher in response to faeces addition than to insect prey irrespective of Nepenthes species. This indicates that faeces can mimic arthropod prey triggering the production of digestive enzymes and N. hemsleyana retained capacity for production of them.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10611 - Plant sciences, botany

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

ISSN

0981-9428

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

161

Issue of the periodical within the volume

APR

Country of publishing house

FR - FRANCE

Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

123-131

UT code for WoS article

000637955100013

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85100608589