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The biodiversity crisis, explained

Sometime in the distant past, well before humans walked the Earth, the ancestors of modern-day elephants evolved their iconic tusks. Elephants use their bleach-white incisors - they're technically giant teeth, like ours but longer- to dig, collect food, and protect themselves.

Then Homo sapiens arrived, and elephant tusks became a liability. Poachers kill the massive animals for their tusks, which are worth about $330 a pound wholesale as of 2017. Hunters slaughter roughly 20,000 elephants a year to supply the global ivory trade, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

But just as tusks evolved because they provide a number of benefits, a striking new study shows that somepopulations of African elephants have rapidly evolved to become tusk- less. Published in the journal Science, the paper's authors found that many elephants in a park in Mozambique, which were heavily hunted for their ivory during a civil war a few decades ago, have lost their tusks - presumably because tuskless elephants are more likely to survive and pass the trait on to their offspring.

While scientists have known about this trend for a while - it's not uncommon to see tuskless elephants in places with lots of poaching - the study provides strong evidence that the trait is rooted in genetics, something previous research failed to do, said Andrew Hendry, an evolutionary biologist at McGill University who was not involved in the research. In other words, the study shows evolution in action.

The results also offer a vivid example of how animals can quickly adapt under human pressures such as poaching and climate change. Past research has shown that creatures can evolve new colors, shapes, and even behaviors to better tolerate the increasingly inhospitable world we've created for them. The problem is that even rapid evolution hasits limits - and many species are already on the brink.

How a civil war caused elephants to lose their tusks

Social conflict and the decline of wildlife are often closely linked, the authors of the Science study write. Few locations reveal a clearer picture of this than Gorongosa National Park, a protected area in central Mozambique where Shane Campbell-Staton, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University, led the research.

During a 16-year civil war that began in 1977, poachers on both sides of the conflict slaughtered a huge number of elephants in the park for their ivory, which they sold to finance their efforts, according to the study. Over that period, the number of large herbivores (like elephants) at Gorongosa fell by more than 90 percent.

That's not all that changed in the park. Between 1970 and 2000 - a period that encompassed much of the impact of the long-running war - the portion of female elephants without tusks nearlytripled. The researchers' best guess was that it had something to do with genetics: A trait visible only in females suggests it might be associated with changes to genes on the X chromosome. (Female elephants have two X chromosomes, whereas males have an X and a Y chromosome.)

This study all but proved it. The first bit of evidence was that female calves born from tuskless mothers were often themselves tuskless, indicating that the trait is passed on from one generation to the next. "A heritable trait is pretty strong evidence of a genetic basis," said Robert Pringle, a biology professor at Princeton and a co-author of the study.

The authors also identified a couple of regions in the animals' DNA that appear to be associated with a lack of tusks. Sure enough, "There is strong evidence for mutations on a particular region of the X chromosome," Pringle said. Mutations, or variations in an organism's DNA, are an important engine of evolution. If they result in traits that are beneficial - such as tusklessness, for certain populations of female elephants - they're more likely to get passed to the next generation and drive evolution.

Remarkably, one of the genes associated with tusklessness is also present in humans, where it's linked to a condition that limits the growth of our lateral incisors. These are essentially the same teeth that, in elephants, evolved into tusks millions of years ago.

What makes this study so fascinating is that it offers evidence of rapid evolution in an animal that has a pretty long lifespan- 50 or 60 years - in the wild, saidHendry and Fred Allendorf, a professor emeritus at the University of Montana who was not involved in the research.

Studies of elephants "rarely can say anything about the genetic basis" of tusklessness, Hendry said. For years, researchers assumed that rapid evolution was common only in small species with short life cycles. Given these results, "Nobody can argue that evolution isn't occurring, even in the biggest and longest-lived species," he added.

Should all elephants ditch their tusks?

In theory, it's advantageousto be born without tusks in areas where poachers are active, Hendry said. But tusklessness also has its downsides. Elephants need their tusks to dig, lift objects, and defend themselves. The hulking incisors are not useless appendages.

The genes that seem to make female elephants tuskless also appear to prevent mothers from giving birth to male calves - that's why all the tuskless elephants in the park are female, Pringle said. (Some mothers did give birth to males with tusks, who likely didn't inherit the gene.) Over time, a shift in the sex of elephants could have consequences for population growth.

There are also potential costs to African grasslands, which are among the rarest and most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, the study authors write. By turning over soil in search of food and minerals and gouging trees with their tusks, African savanna elephants prevent forests from growing too denseand help maintain grasslands. That's why they're considered " engineers " of the ecosystem. If they lose their tusks, a whole web of plants and animals may feel the impact.

"This evolutionary change could have massive cascading ecological influences," Hendry said.

How humans are changing animals

Humans have shaped the environment around them for centuries, down to the very genetics of wild plants and animals. The tuskless elephants in this study are just one example in a long list of species that have adapted in response to the pressures we've placed on them.

"Human-induced changes are creating conditions for fast biological evolution - so rapid that its effects can be seen in only a few years or even more quickly," a team of scientists wrote in a landmark intergovernmental biodiversity report in 2019.

One of the earliest and most famous examples is the peppered moth in the UK. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of the moths flitting about England were white with speckles of black, which helped them blend in with lichen and tree bark. Then, in the mid- to late-1800s, coal-fired power plants and mills started belching dark soot that blackened trees in parts of the country. White moths stood out against the newly dark background and were more likely to be eaten by birds, whereas the once-rare black ones were camouflaged and survived. In a matter of years, some populations of peppered moths inverted from white to mostly black. The phenomenon was deemed "industrial melanism."

Scientists have measured similar changes in recent decades. One study from 2003, for example, found that bighorn sheep in Alberta, Canada, evolved smaller horns in roughly 30 years. The reason? Trophy hunters tend to target rams with larger horns. Another study, published in November 2020, suggests that a type of lily found in the mountains of China is evolving less-colorful leaves so it doesn't stand out in regions where it's harvested as a traditional herb.

Rising temperatures from climate change also appear to be making some animals, including birds and mammals, smaller, as I previously reported. Smaller bodies cool off more easily than larger ones, so shrinking could be an adaptive response in warming environments (though it's not yet clear whether these particular changes are genetic).

Then there are species changing in less conspicuous ways. In Japan, populations of mamushi snakes that are heavily hunted for their perceived medicinal and nutritional benefits seem to be better at evading predators, compared to snakepopulations that hunters have ignored. Many species, including plants and insects, have evolved resistance to pesticides, which is why farmers often use several at once and chemical companies must constantly develop new solutions.

There's something like hope behind the idea of rapid evolution. Humans are deforesting, polluting, and exploiting the Earth at an alarming pace, yet in some cases, animals are adapting to live another day. There's even a term for this resilience, Hendry said: "evolutionary rescue."

Still, this evolution, as fast-tracked as it may be, still often isn't quick enough to overcome the many threats species face. And because adaptations can also come with drawbacks, there are untold and unpredictable consequences for the ecosystem at large.

Plus, not all species can adapt their way out of crisis. Consider rhinoceroses, which poachers kill for their horns. Three of the five rhino species have been hunted almost to extinction, yet none appear to have evolved hornlessness.

In Gorongosa National Park, the ecosystem has largely recovered from the war, Pringle said. Poaching has subsided, but tusks haven't bounced back. After the war, the park successfully rebuilt its infrastructure, ramped up law enforcement, and put social development programs into place. The presence of tuskless elephants is now akin to a scar from an injury that's healed, Pringle said. So while evolution may have helped these creatures survive, the real remedy is putting an end to the underlying forces that triggered it in the first place.

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Poaching is altering the genetics of wild animals

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The biodiversity crisis, explained Sometime in the distant past, well before humans walked the Earth, the ancestors of modern-day elephants evolved their iconic tusks. Elephants use their bleach-white incisors - they're technically giant teeth, like ours but longer- to dig, collect food, and protect themselves. Then Homo sapiens arrived, and elephant tusks became a liability.

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Use this for practicing the method

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It's a cold gloomy morning, the bright sun barely peeking through the mass of dark clouds that hang low in the sky. I want to get up but can't. My body has become immobile as a result of the lack of sleep that pervades my body. As my alarm clangs in the background and makes its way into my dreams, my hand slams the snooze button for the fifth time, anticipating those five more precious minutes of sleep.

As I throw myself off my lofted dorm bed, there is one immediate stop I make before brushing my teeth, before removing the crusties out of my eyes, before my eyes even fully open. I go to the refrigerator, where there awaits for me the most glorious creation of all time: a cold, mango passionfruit Celsius. The clouds have finally parted, and now the sunshine appears, the birds are singing and I am energized to the maximum. Now, this might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but on days when my energy levels are at zero and I can barely function, there is nothing more that I want - that I need - than a cold, refreshing energy drink or iced coffee.

These products are everywhere: in vending machines, Blue Cafés in the residence halls and restaurants. There are entire vending machines dedicated to the variety of Monster drinks; lines of Bang and Celsius and Redbull are advertised as the cure-alls for the struggling, tired student. Whether going to the gym and in need of a quick pre-workout boost, sipping a drink after studying for three hours in the library or one right before sunrise, we use energy drinks for exactly what they are: quick energy in a matter of minutes. It's artificial energy, but at what cost are we consuming it?

Energy drink companies primarily advertise to a young customer base - and these demographics reveal how the growing prioritization of work over sleep has virtually created a cultural need for caffeine. About 51% of college students report energy drink consumption, the Journal of Caffeine Research found, while 86% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 report general caffeine usage. In an era where energy drinks such as Celsius are seeing an increase in sales due to their claims of "metabolism boosts" and "increased efficiency," people now, more than ever, are using the drink for so-called "healthy" reasons in an attempt to increase their endurance in exercise and to accommodate their active lifestyles. The glamorization of energy drinks by these companies has led consumers to believe that such drinks are beneficial to their health and wellbeing, while more often than not, these drinks have just as much sugar and artificial preservatives in them as regular soda and juices. There was an estimated 240% increase in sales throughout the globe in 2017 as a result of these energy drink campaigns, targeting a primarily adolescent audience.

Regardless, drinking large amounts of caffeine has a myriad of health problems associated with it. Increased blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, anxiety and digestive issues are just some of the risks that consistently large uptakes of caffeine may cause. Furthermore, the practice of mixing energy drinks with alcohol is alarmingly prevalent among college students, consumed together in order to increase the amount of alcohol that one may consume in one setting without "feeling" the effects - yet studies show that the impairment and lack of coordination is often even more pronounced. Caffeine addiction can be quickly developed, due to chemical changes within the brain and an increased tolerance. Caffeine addiction is manifested through many ways, but is shown when one is unable to function without the presence of caffeinated beverages. While caffeine causes a surge of dopamine similar to other drugs, it is not a large enough one that unbalances the reward system, which in turn minimizes how we see it as "addicting." In particular, caffeine withdrawal, or the absence of caffeine after drinking it for prolonged periods of time, can be debilitating and cause headaches, nausea and irritability. About 75% of those who drink caffeine are addicted, revealing the large dependence on the substance for day to day life.

However, there are some benefits as well when taken in the right amount, such as the ability to process glucose better, lessen the ability of developing chronic illness and increased concentration. Perhaps addiction to energy drinks reveals a larger problem within the scope of culture - our want for instantaneous gratification and the lessening importance of sleep within our society. In a world where a "busier" schedule is the more "accomplished" one, there has become an incessant need to prioritize ambition over health.

Now, don't get me wrong - after I write this article, I will probably open a fresh can and dump its entirety in my mouth without hesitation. Maybe I will go and run the best mile of my life, write the greatest essay of my life or be the happiest that I've ever been. But after I burn through this rented energy, I know that I will still feel fatigued and tired in the morning because, at the end of it all, four hours of sleep a night will not suffice. Artificial energy stimulants are like bandages; they may cover up and mask the problem, but they do not necessarily cure it.

Artificial energy drink companies consistently profit off a cultural incessant need to be busy. In turn, companies have no intention of making their consumers feel rested, as that would get rid of the need for such drinks. Consequently, there is a continuous cycle that occurs as a result of their marketability.

These companies use marketing strategies to pull in customers, appealing to social media and other youth oriented-activities. Bang, a rising popular energy drink company, uses influencers to advertise their product on apps like TikTok to increase youth engagement and popularity. In 5-Hour Energy commercials, there is always the prototype of a busy person who magically becomes smiley and energetic once they have their first sip. It is estimated that by 2026, the global market for energy drinks will reach $86 billion. As advertising and marketing spending increases, especially for the younger demographic, this rise of consumption will continuously lead to long-term adverse health effects like increased risk of heart palpitations and even insomnia.

However, in recent years, many energy drink companies have come under negative light due to claims of harm from their products. Red Bull, one of the most popular energy drink brands, had to pay $13 million in refunds for false advertising allegations. One of the lawsuits mentioned that the company "misleads customers into thinking they're getting a superior source of energy beyond caffeine." Thus, it is evident that these products are portrayed in such a way that presents these products as the end-all-be-all these products sell a new way in which you are not only able to stay up for prolonged periods of time, but also a new way to be 'superhuman.'

Particularly in college, where there is a constant state of stress and underlying exhaustion that most students experience, it is odd to not be tired after a full day's worth of classes, clubs, hours spent at the lab, working and studying. One cannot help but feel exhausted and as if their energy reserves are depleted. Because of this, the profitability of such drinks on college campuses is extremely high due to capitalization off of this exhaustion as profits for these companies. Energy is one of the most important things that we need in our day-to-day lives. We need to think more about where that source of energy comes from and whether it is helping or harming us.
Statement Columnist Chinwe Onwere can be reached at chinweo@umich.edu.

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We use energy drinks for exactly what they are: quick energy in a matter of minutes. It's artificial energy, but at what cost are we consuming it?

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Use this for practicing the method

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Use this as a guide

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Cephalotus follicularis, the Australian pitcher plant. Photographed here in its native range in Western Australia, this carnivorous plant evolved to digest insects through a strikingly similar evolutionary pathway as other plants that developed the same capability independently, a new study finds. Credit: Mitsuyasu Hasebe

To the average plant-eating human, the thought of a plant turning the tables to feast on an animal might seem like a lurid novelty.

Now, science is showing just how remarkable these macabre traits really are.

A new study probes the origins of carnivory in several distantly related plants-including the Australian, Asian and American pitcher plants, which appear strikingly similar to the human (or insect) eye. Although each species developed carnivory independently, the research concludes that the biological machinery required for digesting insects evolved in a strikingly similar fashion in all three.

The findings hint that for a plant, the evolutionary routes to carnivory may be few and far between.

"It suggests that there are only limited pathways for becoming a carnivorous plant," says University at Buffalo biologist Victor A. Albert. "These plants have a genetic tool kit, and they're trying to come up with an answer to the problem of how to become carnivorous. And in the end, they all come up with the same solution."

The research, "Genome of the pitcher plant Cephalotus reveals genetic changes associated with carnivory," which will be published on Feb. 6, 2017 in Nature Ecology and Evolution. It was conducted by an international team led by Mitsuyasu Hasebe, PhD, of the National Institute for Basic Biology in Japan and SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies) in Japan; Kenji Fukushima, PhD, of the same institutions and the University of Colorado School of Medicine; Shuaicheng Li, PhD, of BGI-Shenzhen in China; and Albert, PhD, a professor of biological sciences in UB's College of Arts and Sciences.

A close-up of the pitchers of Cephalotus follicularis, the Australian pitcher plant. A soup of digestive fluids sits at the bottom of these waxy pitchers, breaking down the flesh and exoskeletons of insects that fall in. The plant is photographed here in Western Australia, the only place in the world where the species is known to naturally occur. Credit: Mitsuyasu Hasebe

How to become a pitcher plant: a narrow evolutionary road
Pitcher plants capture insects by luring them into a pitfall trap-a cupped leaf with a waxy, slippery interior that makes it difficult to climb out. A soup of digestive fluids sits at the bottom of this chamber and breaks down the flesh and exoskeletons of prey.

Australian, Asian and American pitcher plants possess these features despite having evolved independently to become carnivores, as Albert and colleagues discovered in a 1992 study published in the journal Science.

The new paper builds on this older work, conducting a deeper investigation into how unrelated pitcher plants came to share so much in common.

As it turns out, the path to carnivory was remarkably similar for the three species examined- Cephalotus follicularis (the Australian pitcher plant, related to starfruit), Nepenthes alata (an Asian pitcher plant related to buckweat) and Sarracenia purpurea (an American pitcher plant related to kiwifruit). A genetic analysis, which included sequencing the entire genome of Cephalotus, found strong evidence that during their evolution into carnivores, each of these plants co-opted many of the same ancient proteins to create enzymes for digesting prey.

Over time, in all three species, plant protein families that originally assisted in self-defense against disease and other stresses developed into the digestive enzymes we see today, genetic clues suggest. These enzymes include basic chitinase, which breaks down chitin-the major component of insects' hard, exterior exoskeletons-and purple acid phosphatase, which enables plants to obtain phosphorus, a critical nutrient, from victims' body parts.

Enzymes in a fourth carnivorous species, the sundew Drosera adelae, a relative of Nepenthes that is not a pitcher plant, also appeared to share this evolutionary road.
'Constraints on the available routes' to carnivory
The findings represent an example of convergent evolution, in which unrelated species evolve independently to acquire similar traits, say co-authors Hasebe and Fukushima.

"Such parallel development often points to a particularly valuable adaptation," Hasebe says.

As Fukushima explains, "Carnivorous plants often live in nutrient-poor environments, so the ability to trap and digest animals can be indispensable given the dearth of other sources of nourishment."

It's striking that the plants studied took such a similar route to becoming predators, the co-authors say. Convergent evolution often works this way: For example, Albert and colleagues showed in a previous study that while coffee and chocolate plants developed caffeine independently, they co-opted closely related proteins to produce caffeine.

The new study's results "imply constraints on the available routes to evolve plant carnivory," the authors write in Nature Ecology and Evolution. This prospect is underscored by unusual commonalities between digestive enzymes in Cephalotus and Nepenthes plants.

During the course of evolution, building blocks of enzymes called amino acids are often swapped out and replaced by other amino acids. In C. follicularis and N. alata, basic chitinases and purple acid phosphatases share numerous identical or highly similar amino acid substitutions that don't occur in non-carnivorous species, suggesting that these alterations may help these enzymes function in special, carnivorous ways.

Similarly, the enzyme RNase T2, which breaks down a material called RNA in insect cells to produce food for plants, had multiple evolutionarily convergent amino acid substitutions in C. follicularis and a common ancestor of N. alata and D. adelae.

More information: Kenji Fukushima et al, Genome of the pitcher plant Cephalotus reveals genetic changes associated with carnivory, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-016-0059

Provided by University at Buffalo

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Study sheds light on how carnivorous plants acquired a taste for meat

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To the average plant-eating human, the thought of a plant turning the tables to feast on an animal might seem like a lurid novelty. Now, science is showing just how remarkable these macabre traits really are.

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Leslie Sage, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences, Washington DC

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John VanDecar, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences, London

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Yang Xia, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences, Shanghai

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News and Features

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Nisha Gaind, Bureau Chief, Europe

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Nicky Phillips, Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief, Sydney

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Lauren Wolf, Americas Bureau Chief, Washington DC

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Anna Nagle, Chief Editor, Digital & Engagement, London

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Flora Graham, Senior Editor, Nature Briefing, London

Flora writes the daily Nature Briefing email, covering everything that matters in science, from Nature and beyond. Previously she was Digital Editor at New Scientist and a technology and physics reporter for the BBC, CBC and CNET. Flora has a BSc in Physics and English from the University of British Columbia and an MSc in science communication from Imperial College London.
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Brendan Maher, Features Editor, New York

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Kerri Smith, Features Editor, London

Kerri edits and writes for the features section, covering life sciences. She joined Nature in 2006, as an intern in the newly minted podcast department. For 11 years she presented and produced the award-winning Nature Podcast and other documentary and roundtable audio series, alongside writing for the news and features sections. Kerri has a degree in human sciences and an MSc in neuroscience from the University of Oxford, and an MSc in science communication from Imperial College London.
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Richard Van Noorden, Features Editor, London

Richard joined Nature in January 2009 as a reporter and subsequently a senior reporter covering chemistry, materials, energy and science publishing, and moved into his current position in 2015. Previously, he was a reporter and editor at Chemistry World. He has a master's degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge. r.vannoorden#nature.com*

Davide Castelvecchi, Senior Reporter, Physical Sciences

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David Cyranoski, Asia-Pacific Correspondent, Shanghai

David had worked in Japan for several years before moving into journalism with Nature in 2000. His varied employment history includes translation for a semiconductor-manufacturing equipment company and teaching history to foreign exchange students. As a Nature correspondent, first in Tokyo and then, since December 2013, in Shanghai, he covers a variety of topics with a special interest in stem cells.
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Holly Else, Reporter, London

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Elizabeth Gibney, Senior Reporter, London

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Amy joined Nature in 2017, covering the entanglements of evolution, medicine, policy and of the people involved with research. Her stories have appeared in Nature, Wired and Newsweek, among other outlets. Amy's feature on the origin of humanity was anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015, and she won the 2016 Science in Society Journalism Award from the National Association of Science Writers for a piece on Ebola. Before becoming a journalist, she received a PhD in evolution from Harvard.
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Alex covers the Earth and planetary sciences, with a little dabbling in astronomy. She studied geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Among other places she has worked as a journalist for Science News and the Dallas Morning News; she also ran Nature's US news operations from Washington DC between 2005 and 2010. Alex rejoined the journal in 2013.
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Joanne Baker, Senior Comment Editor

Joanne joined Nature in 2007 from the journal Science. She has degrees in physics (MA, natural sciences, University of Cambridge), astrophysics (PhD, University of Sydney) and landscape architecture (MLA Greenwich University), and held postdocs at the University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley and University of Oxford. In 2019-20 she was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. She's authored several books. Areas of responsibility include: physical sciences.

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James Butcher is Publishing Director of the Nature journals, responsible for the research publishing activities of the existing titles and for launching new Nature journals. Before that he worked on our two broad-scope open-access journals- Nature Communications and Scientific Reports-helping to nurture them during their early years. James joined Nature Publishing Group in 2008 as Publisher of the Nature Clinical Practice journals and later became Publisher of the Nature Reviews portfolio. Between 2000 and 2007 he worked at The Lancet, first as a Senior Editor then as Executive Editor; he launched The Lancet Neurology, as Editor, in 2002. James was awarded a PhD in neurophysiology from the University of Bristol in 1998.

Richard Hughes is Publishing Director for Nature 's magazine content including multimedia. Richard joined what was then Nature Publishing Group in 2012 and helped to establish a new business that provides content marketing solutions for partners. Prior to Nature, Richard managed a list of clinical journals at Wiley. He holds scientific degrees from the University of Southampton and the University of Bath, and an MBA from Henley Business School. Richard is based in London.

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In this role, Ritu has been overseeing research editorial strategy and management of Nature, Nature Communications and the Nature Research and Review Journals. She has advocated for policies that increase open research and reproducibility and has promoted strategies that lead to more transparency in peer review.

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Any insect unlucky enough to land on the mouth-like leaves of an Australian pitcher plant will meet a grisly end. The plant's prey is drawn into a vessel-like 'pitcher' organ where a specialized cocktail of enzymes digests the victim.

Now, by studying the pitcher plant's genome-and comparing its insect-eating fluids to those of other carnivorous plants-researchers have found that meat-eating plants the world over have hit on the same deadly molecular recipe, even though they are separated by millions of years of evolution.

"We're really looking at a classic case of convergent evolution," says Victor Albert, a plant-genome scientist at the University of Buffalo, New York, who co-led the study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution on February 6.

Carnivorous plants occur across the flowering-plant family tree. The Australian pitcher plant ( Cephalotus follicularis)-native to a sliver of coastline in Southwest Australia-is closer kin to the starfruit ( Averrhoa carambola) than to other species of pitcher plants found in the Americas and southeast Asia. This suggests that carnivory has evolved repeatedly in plants, probably to cope with the nutrient-scarce soils in which they grow, Albert says. "What they're trying to do is capture nitrogen and phosphorus from their prey."

Deadly recipe

Australian pitcher plants produce deadly 'pitcher' leaves-which resemble a toothy grin-as well as flat leaves. After sequencing the species' genome, Albert's team identified genes that are activated differently between the pitcher-like leaves and the plant's other, non-carnivorous, leaves. These included genes involved in making starches and sugars that may help to produce the nectar that lures insects to their deaths, as well as genes encoding waxy substances that may make it hard to escape from the pitcher.

To determine how pitchers eat their prey, the researchers sampled the digestive cocktail from Cephalotus and several other unrelated carnivorous plants and identified a total of 35 proteins, using mass spectrometry. Many of the proteins are related to those that other flowering plants use to fend off pathogens. For instance, plants typically produce enzymes that break down a polymer called chitin as a defence against fungi, which make their cell walls out of the chemical. But Albert suspects that Australian pitchers and other carnivorous plants have repurposed the enzyme to digest insect exoskeletons, which are also made of chitin.

In the new analysis, Albert and his colleagues also found that in distantly related carnivorous plants, including species of pitcher plants, the genes deployed to make the digestive-fluid proteins have a common evolutionary origin. What's more, some of these genes have independently evolved to change the shape of the enzymes they encode in similar ways in the different species. The researchers don't have proof yet, but they think that the mutations might help to stabilize the enzymes when they are present together in digestive fluid.

While researchers already appreciated the importance of convergent evolution for carnivorous plants, says Aaron Ellison, an ecologist at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, the new study is important because it demonstrates how this convergence can occur down to the molecular level, he says.

Gaining the ability to eat an insect is of little use if a plant cannot first entrap one, and here evolution has come up with more diverse solutions, Albert notes. Venus fly-traps ensnare their prey, whereas bladderworts immobilize their victims using tiny suction cups. In his 1875 book Insectivorous Plants, Charles Darwin included detailed drawings of the tentacles that sundews use to pin insects to their leaves. "It's no wonder Darwin wrote an entire book on carnivorous plants," Albert says.

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Any insect unlucky enough to land on the mouth-like leaves of an Australian pitcher plant will meet a grisly end. The plant's prey is drawn into a vessel-like 'pitcher' organ where a specialized cocktail of enzymes digests the victim.

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You'll be able to learn a bit from this video, but he doesn't tell you HOW to do what you need to do. That is what my second doc will help you with.

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Check the publication here!

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