| Title: | The Venus flytrap attracts insects by the release of volatile organic compounds |
| Author(s): | Kreuzwieser J; Scheerer U; Kruse J; Burzlaff T; Honsel A; Alfarraj S; Georgiev P; Schnitzler JP; Ghirardo A; Kreuzer I; Hedrich R; Rennenberg H; |
| Address: | "Professur fur Baumphysiologie, Institut fur Forstwissenschaften, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, Georges-Kohler-Allee Geb. 053/054, 79110 Freiburg, Germany" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1460-2431 (Electronic) 0022-0957 (Print) 0022-0957 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Does Dionaea muscipula, the Venus flytrap, use a particular mechanism to attract animal prey? This question was raised by Charles Darwin 140 years ago, but it remains unanswered. This study tested the hypothesis that Dionaea releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to allure prey insects. For this purpose, olfactory choice bioassays were performed to elucidate if Dionaea attracts Drosophila melanogaster. The VOCs emitted by the plant were further analysed by GC-MS and proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). The bioassays documented that Drosophila was strongly attracted by the carnivorous plant. Over 60 VOCs, including terpenes, benzenoids, and aliphatics, were emitted by Dionaea, predominantly in the light. This work further tested whether attraction of animal prey is affected by the nutritional status of the plant. For this purpose, Dionaea plants were fed with insect biomass to improve plant N status. However, although such feeding altered the VOC emission pattern by reducing terpene release, the attraction of Drosophila was not affected. From these results it is concluded that Dionaea attracts insects on the basis of food smell mimicry because the scent released has strong similarity to the bouquet of fruits and plant flowers. Such a volatile blend is emitted to attract insects searching for food to visit the deadly capture organ of the Venus flytrap" |
| Keywords: | Animals Biological Assay Droseraceae/*physiology Drosophila melanogaster/*physiology Feeding Behavior/physiology Female Male Principal Component Analysis Smell/physiology Volatile Organic Compounds/*metabolism Carnivorous plants Dionaea muscipula Drosophi; |
| Notes: | "MedlineKreuzwieser, Jurgen Scheerer, Ursel Kruse, Jorg Burzlaff, Tim Honsel, Anne Alfarraj, Saleh Georgiev, Plamen Schnitzler, Jorg-Peter Ghirardo, Andrea Kreuzer, Ines Hedrich, Rainer Rennenberg, Heinz eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2014/01/15 J Exp Bot. 2014 Feb; 65(2):755-66. doi: 10.1093/jxb/ert455. Epub 2014 Jan 13" |
