Martín-Roca José, Barriuso G C Miguel, Martínez Fernández Raúl, Betterelli Giuliano Camila, Zhang Rongjing, Valeriani Chantal, Wilson Laurence G
Departamento de Estructura de la Materia, Fisica Termica y Electronica, Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain.
Elvesys-Microfluidics Innovation Centre, Paris 75011, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jan 7;122(1):e2409510121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2409510121. Epub 2024 Dec 31.
Carnivory in plants is an unusual trait that has arisen multiple times, independently, throughout evolutionary history. Plants in the genus are carnivorous and feed on microorganisms that live in soil using modified subterranean leaf structures (rhizophylls). A surprisingly broad array of microfauna has been observed in the plants' digestive chambers, including ciliates, amoebae, and soil mites. Here, we show, through experiments and simulations, that exploit active matter physics to "rectify" bacterial swimming and establish a local flux of bacteria through the structured environment of the rhizophyll toward the plant's digestion vesicle. In contrast, macromolecular digestion products are free to diffuse away from the digestion vesicle and establish a concentration gradient of carbon sources to draw larger microorganisms further inside the plant. Our experiments and simulations show that this mechanism is likely to be a localized one and that no large-scale efflux of digested matter is present.
植物的食肉习性是一种不寻常的特性，在整个进化史上曾多次独立出现。该属植物是食肉性的，利用改良的地下叶片结构（根叶）捕食生活在土壤中的微生物。在这些植物的消化腔中观察到种类惊人的广泛微型动物群，包括纤毛虫、变形虫和土壤螨。在这里，我们通过实验和模拟表明，（该属植物）利用活性物质物理学来“矫正”细菌游动，并通过根叶的结构化环境建立细菌向植物消化囊泡的局部通量。相比之下，大分子消化产物可自由地从消化囊泡扩散出去，并建立碳源浓度梯度，以将更大的微生物吸引到植物内部更远的地方。我们的实验和模拟表明，这种机制可能是局部性的，不存在消化物质的大规模外流。
