Possibillities of new antibacterial products from insect-eating plants

Japanese researchers have identified seven proteins in the carnivorous plant's fluid. These enzymes could give us new antibacterial products useful in agriculture and medicine.

Most plants support their growth by absorbing nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from the soil. In Carnivorous plants living in regions where soils lack these nutrients, alternative arrangements have evolved — these plants can catch and digest insects.

The plant Nepenthes alata uses a combination of bright colours and sweet scent to attract insects to the pitcher, where slippery side walls and a deep pit filled with acidic fluid trap and kill the victims. (Credit: Claude Nuridsany & Marie Perenou, Science photo library)

Previous research had confirmed that the fluid at the base of the trap contains digestive enzymes, but the exact mechanism wasn’t known. Now, Naoya Hatano from the Harima Institute in Riken and Tatsuro Hamada from Ishikawa Prefectural University in Japan have identified seven proteins in the carnivorous plant's fluid. They separated out proteins from the fluid of carnivorous plants and used mass spectrometry to identify what type of enzymes the proteins were likely to be.

Antibacterial enzymes

Researchers found that although three of the enzymes are certainly capable of digesting insects, the others probably play a role in preservation of the prey because they are closely related to enzymes that prevent fungal and bacterial infections in other plants. They report their results in the Journal of Proteome Research. These enzymes could potentially be useful in preventing bacterial and fungal infections. However, further research is needed for their full potential to be realized in agriculture and medicine.

Source: nature.com