Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, University of Würzburg, 97082 Würzburg, Germany; email:
Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2021 Jun 17;72:133-153. doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-080620-010429. Epub 2021 Jan 12.
Charles Darwin recognized that carnivorous plants thrive in nutrient-poor soil by capturing animals. Although the concept of botanical carnivory has been known for nearly 150 years, its molecular mechanisms and evolutionary origins have not been well understood until recently. In the last decade, technical advances have fueled the genome and transcriptome sequencings of active and passive hunters, leading to a better understanding of the traits associated with the carnivorous syndrome, from trap leaf development and prey digestion to nutrient absorption, exemplified, for example, by the Venus flytrap (), pitcher plant (), and bladderwort (). The repurposing of defense-related genes is an important trend in the evolution of plant carnivory. In this review, using the Venus flytrap as a representative of the carnivorous plants, we summarize the molecular mechanisms underlying their ability to attract, trap, and digest prey and discuss the origins of plant carnivory in relation to their genomic evolution.
查尔斯·达尔文认识到，肉食植物通过捕捉动物在营养贫瘠的土壤中茁壮成长。尽管肉食植物的概念已经存在了近 150 年，但直到最近，其分子机制和进化起源才得到很好的理解。在过去的十年中，技术的进步推动了活跃和被动捕猎者的基因组和转录组测序，从而更好地理解了与肉食综合征相关的特征，从诱捕叶的发育和猎物的消化到营养吸收，例如，维纳斯捕蝇草（）、猪笼草（）和狸藻（）。防御相关基因的重新利用是植物肉食进化的一个重要趋势。在这篇综述中，我们以维纳斯捕蝇草为例，总结了它们吸引、捕捉和消化猎物的分子机制，并讨论了与它们的基因组进化相关的植物肉食起源。
