By which mechanism does prey capture enhance plant growth in aquatic carnivorous plants: Stimulation of shoot apex?

0357571 - BÚ 2011 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Adamec, Lubomír
By which mechanism does prey capture enhance plant growth in aquatic carnivorous plants: Stimulation of shoot apex?
Fundamental and Applied Limnology. Roč. 178, č. 2 (2011), s. 171-176. ISSN 1863-9135. E-ISSN 1863-9135
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60050516
Keywords : aquatic carnivorous plants * dark respiration * tissue N and P content
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 1.145, year: 2011

Dark respiration (RD) and tissue N and P content were estimated in young parts of shoot apices in three aquatic carnivorous plants, Aldrovanda vesiculosa, Utricularia australis, and U. bremii, grown with or without prey in a 12-d greenhouse growth experiment. The apical shoot growth rate of fed plants in all three species was significantly higher by 49-85 % than that of the unfed variants and so also was shoot branching. In A. vesiculosa only, tissue N content in apices and shoot segments of fed plants was significantly greater that in unfed plants. Both apical and shoot P content was significantly greater in fed plants of A. vesiculosa and U. australis, while the P contents were the same in U. bremii. Feeding on prey significantly increased RD of shoot apices only in A. vesiculosa. In conclusion, the more rapid growth due to feeding could hypothetically be caused by stimulating the cell division in the youngest parts of shoot apex due to a faster allocation of prey-derived N and P.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0195816