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How a Venus Flytrap Snaps

Posted by michael on from the invasion-of-the-fly-snatchers dept.

Chris Gondek pastes in a few sentences: "A team of scientists led by a Harvard mathematician say they have solved one of the plant world's most intriguing mysteries: how the Venus flytrap snaps shut. Using a high-speed video camera and computer modelling, the team found that the flytrap employs an ingenious trick to slowly build up elastic pressure in its leaves, like the stretching of a rubber band, and then snap at the slightest provocation."

20 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Hasn't this been known for decades? by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Pressure builds up in the cells, electrical impulses, etc. old stuff...

    I learned this stuff in advanced ecology in college. One of the grad students even showed us the impulses on a computer. A Math grad student used this in a paper about the catastrophy point.

    What exactly is new with this experiment? The article doesn't go into details.

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    1. Re:Hasn't this been known for decades? by Fruvous · · Score: 2

      You aren't supposed to read the article. Use your imagination instead. Kids theese day's, No imagination always spending time with thier damned computers.

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    2. Re:Hasn't this been known for decades? by Naikrovek · · Score: 3, Informative

      it has been known for a while that the Venus Flytrap uses electrical signals to trigger the closure, but no one knew exactly how the mouth actually closed. No one knew what the mechanics of the mouth were. Now we know how the mouth closes, but not the exact method that initiates the closure.

      It is now known (since this study) that the mouth is poised to close most of the time and just given that final miniscule nudge to flip shut when something touches two hairs inside. in the article they describe a soft contact lens; push on its center and it resists, until a point where the lens suddenly inverts. the point just before the inversion is where the Venus Flytrap spends most of its time. just a few small cells fill with water (this is the unknown bit, how that happens) and its enough to push the internal structure of the mouth over the edge, slamming shut.

    3. Re:Hasn't this been known for decades? by nocomment · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sort of. They had a vague idea, but didn't know how it was able to move so quickly as they don't have muscles. With the high-speed camera and glow-in-the-dark paint they were able to watch the skin stretch and more fluid was pumped into the leaves. It's been compared to a tennis ball cut in half where you just have to bend it slightly and then it suddenly snaps the other way around.

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    4. Re:Hasn't this been known for decades? by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 1

      But this is exactly what I learned back in Sophomore High School Biology, two years ago.

      The movie that discussed it was even older. There's no way this new information is "new".

  2. It didn't really seem to explain it to well by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

    So I read the article, rather intrigued. I wondered if it was water pressure inside the leaves. I wasn't so keen on the "it's like a rubber band..." theory, mainly because I couldn't figure out what forces pulled the "rubber band" back in order for it be right at the snapping point. Just what builds up the kinetic energy inside the plant?

    After reading the whole article, they say this: "The exact mechanism the flytrap uses to change the pressures within the leaf remains unknown, Mahadevan and other scientists said." So it's still all theories and guesses, yah?

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    "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    1. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by g0dsp33d · · Score: 1

      They know the forces that cause it, just not the biology behind the forces, I believe. The contact lense thing I didn't get at first. For those of use with good eyes, its kinda like those hollowed out half sphere toys that kids turn inside out and then they flip around causing them to pop up, if I read the corectly.

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    2. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

      I guess I just wanted more out of it. They talked about electrical impulses, forces acting like stretched rubber bands, inverted contact lenses, etc. I wanted to know just how the electrical impulses triggered something. Is it some funky electromechanical system? Does this mean a Venus Fly Trap requires certain minerals in the soil so it can absorb the electrolytes and thus carry the electrical impulse inside the plant? How does the electrical impulse trigger a plant to snap? In the human body, it forces a muscle to contract...but what happens in a plant. Am I asking too many questions or thinking too deeply in this?

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      "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    3. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by g0dsp33d · · Score: 1

      No, but if you really care that much, you should buy a venus flytrap and start your own research. Who knows, maybe you can develop a new kids toy that snaps on their fingers. Muahahha

      --
      lol: You see no door there!
    4. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The rubber band isn't a good analogy. The rubber half-sphere mentioned by g0dsp33d makes alot more sense to me.

      I think the researchers used the rubber band analogy, it's probably because they are thinking about a Catastrophy Machine. I think this experiment might explain it, but it's been too long ...

      Basically, pressure on the rubberband builds and builds and stops just at the verge of a big event. If something increases the pressure just a little bit, the rubberband snaps, and the circle rotates real quickly.

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    5. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

      Mouse traps are good enough for that. Ahhhh...the good ole days of cheap, fun "toys"...

      --

      "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    6. Re:It didn't really seem to explain it to well by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Am I asking too many questions or thinking too deeply in this?

      No! It's impossible to think too deeply :)

      I haven't studied this stuff in 10 years, but now I'm looking all over for information on this again.

      I found that this article had a good summary which explains Electrochemistry in plants.

      Is it some funky electromechanical system?

      They describe some of the mechanics in the parent article...

      when an insect lands on the leaf and triggers an electrical signal, it takes only a tiny change in pressure to push the leaf over the brink, slamming it shut.

      Although it doesn't explain how the electical impulse causes the change in pressure. But plants change the amount of fluid in cells all the time in response to light, and all plants have the ability to transmit electrochemical signals. The flytrap is just way more specialized in dealing with elecrochemical signals.

      Does this mean a Venus Fly Trap requires certain minerals in the soil so it can absorb the electrolytes and thus carry the electrical impulse inside the plant?

      All plants have the ability to transmit electrochemical signals. The flytrap is just way more specialized. The Flytrap gets most of the minerals from the insects (which are probably high in electrolytes?), not from the soil :)

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      94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
  3. Flytrap by christopherfinke · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's been my experience that a Venus Flytrap will snap when he's been around Les Nessman for too long.

  4. I'm kinda sad to hear this... by museumpeace · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I used to imagine this was a plant with some way of mounting stimulus-response behavior akin to animals so I, complete biology nincompoop that I am, was expecting news of the discovery of an alternative to nerve tissue or some such thing. Now I hear its mostly a mechanical trap. I hate having to constantly re-learn that nature is more clever than I am!

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  5. Whats in a name? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I had a hard enough time in college with the teachers barely speaking engrish. This guys name is Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan.

    Think his students call him Doc L? Mr. M?

  6. What about Johnny Fever? by PateraSilk · · Score: 1
    Haha.

    Seriously, though, how many people on /. are gonna get a WKRP reference?

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    1. Re:What about Johnny Fever? by Watcher · · Score: 1

      That's what I was thinking. Holy crap, someone remembers WKRP!

  7. Recurrent theme by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Informative

    The same theme of building up tension or pressure behind a latch or spring (though not necessarily the exact same implementation as in the flytrap) is at work in the tongues of some frogs and lizards, in the legs of crickets and grasshoppers, and in click beetle flipping, to name a few.

    1. Re:Recurrent theme by Dachannien · · Score: 1

      Well, it's not a stretch (er... no pun intended) to consider that the perturbation caused by a prey item landing on the flytrap leaves pushes the system past the latching mechanism, releasing the stored energy.

      It's the exact same concept, except instead of the perturbation being generated internally via neural impulse (as in my examples), it's produced externally. No surprise there.

  8. Or indeed... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    ... clicky "oilcan" buttons like you get on the better class of calculator.