Mass march of termites into the deadly trap

Merbach, Marlis A.; Merbach, Dennis J.; Maschwitz, U.; Booth, W. E.; Fiala, Brigitte; Zizka, Georg

doi:10.1038/415036a

Cited by 52 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…These results contribute to a growing body of evidence that Nepenthes exploit a range of N sources, including arthropods (Moran 1996;Merbach et al 2002), leaf litter (Moran et al 2003) and vertebrate faeces. Nepenthes lowii is the only plant species that is currently known to sequester N from both vertebrate and invertebrate sources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant

et al. 2009

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Nepenthes pitcher plants are typically carnivorous, producing pitchers with varying combinations of epicuticular wax crystals, viscoelastic fluids and slippery peristomes to trap arthropod prey, especially ants. However, ant densities are low in tropical montane habitats, thereby limiting the potential benefits of the carnivorous syndrome. Nepenthes lowii , a montane species from Borneo, produces two types of pitchers that differ greatly in form and function. Pitchers produced by immature plants conform to the ‘typical’ Nepenthes pattern, catching arthropod prey. However, pitchers produced by mature N. lowii plants lack the features associated with carnivory and are instead visited by tree shrews, which defaecate into them after feeding on exudates that accumulate on the pitcher lid. We tested the hypothesis that tree shrew faeces represent a significant nitrogen (N) source for N. lowii , finding that it accounts for between 57 and 100 per cent of foliar N in mature N. lowii plants. Thus, N. lowii employs a diversified N sequestration strategy, gaining access to a N source that is not available to sympatric congeners. The interaction between N. lowii and tree shrews appears to be a mutualism based on the exchange of food sources that are scarce in their montane habitat.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant

et al. 2009

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“…This enzyme is produced in carnivorous plants of the Nepenthes genus. Plants in this genus have long fascinated botanists interested in mechanisms of insect trapping and nutrient uptake (25,41), and more recently, they have captured the imagination of materials researchers developing new lubrication technology (42). The proteome of the unfractionated fluid is remarkably simple, containing three to nine major proteins in the unstimulated secretions (31,32).…”

Section: Fig 6 Peptide Map For the N-terminal Portion Of The Xrcc4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nepenthesin from Monkey Cups for Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry

Rey

Yang

Burns

et al. 2013

Molecular & Cellular Proteomics

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Studies of protein dynamics, structure and interactions using hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) have sharply increased over the past 5-10 years. The predominant technology requires fast digestion at pH 2-3 to retain deuterium label. Pepsin is used almost exclusively, but it provides relatively low efficiency under the constraints of the experiment, and a selectivity profile that renders poor coverage of intrinsically disordered regions. In this study we present nepenthesin-containing secretions of the pitcher plant Nepenthes, commonly called monkey cups, for use in HDX-MS. We show that nepenthesin is at least 1400-fold more efficient than pepsin under HDX-competent conditions, with a selectivity profile that mimics pepsin in part, but also includes efficient cleavage C-terminal to "forbidden" residues K, R, H, and P. High efficiency permits a solution-based analysis with no detectable autolysis, avoiding the complication of immobilized enzyme reactors. Relaxed selectivity promotes high coverage of disordered regions and the ability to "tune" the mass map for regions of interest. Nepenthesin-enriched secretions were applied to an analysis of protein complexes in the nonhomologous endjoining DNA repair pathway. The analysis of XRCC4 binding to the BRCT domains of Ligase IV points to secondary interactions between the disordered C-terminal tail of XRCC4 and remote regions of the BRCT domains, which could only be identified with a nepenthesin-based workflow. HDX data suggest that stalk-binding to XRCC4 primes a BRCT conformation in these remote regions to support tail interaction, an event which may be phosphoregulated. We conclude that nepenthesin is an effective alternative to pepsin for all HDX-MS applications, and especially for the analysis of structural transitions among intrinsically disordered proteins and their binding partners. Molecular & Cellular

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“…First, Schaefer & Ruxton conducted their experiment in Germany, far outside the native range (southeast Asia) of Nepenthes. Second, in its native habitat, Nepenthes captures predominantly ants and termites (Moran et al 2001;Merbach et al 2002), not flies. Finally, all pitcher plants (approx.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar, not colour, may lure insects to their death

Bennett¹,

Ellison

2009

Biol. Lett.

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We experimentally demonstrate in the field that prey of the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea are attracted to sugar, not to colour. Prey capture (either all taxa summed or individual common taxa considered separately) was not associated with total red area or patterning on pitchers of living pitcher plants. We separated effects of nectar availability and coloration using painted 'pseudopitchers', half of which were coated with sugar solution. Unsugared pseudopitchers captured virtually no prey, whereas pseudopitchers with sugar solution captured the same amount of prey as living pitchers. In contrast to a recent study that associated red coloration with prey capture but that lacked controls for nectar availability, we infer that nectar, not colour, is the primary means by which pitcher plants attract prey.

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Mass march of termites into the deadly trap

Cited by 52 publications

References 5 publications

Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant

Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant

Nepenthesin from Monkey Cups for Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry

Nectar, not colour, may lure insects to their death

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