Abstract
Carnivorous plants growing in nutrient-poor soils have special organs to capture insects, to digest them and to absorb their nutrients. The genus Nepenthes is comprised of carnivorous plants that digest insects in pitcher fluid to supplement their nutrients uptake. The "pitcher" bud forms at the tip of the leaf and gradually expands to form a pot-shaped trap. The bottom of the trap contains a fluid which includes aspartic proteases (nepenthesin I and II), β-D-xylosidase, β-1,3-glucanase, class IV chitinase, and thaumatin-like protein (Hatano & Hamada, 2008). We isolated NaNEPII, NaXYL1 and NaBGLUC1 genes encoding Nepenthes alata nepenthesin II, β-D-xylosidase and β-1,3-glucanase, respectively. To identify gene expression patterns of genes encoding secreted proteins from pitcher fluid of Nepenthes alata, we purified total RNAs from leaves, roots, stems, closed whole pitchers (various sizes) and whole pitchers opened after 0 - 41 days and performed RT-PCR analysis. It revealed that gene expression patterns for each of the genes were different.
Hatano, N. & Hamada, T. (2008) J. Proteome Res. 7, 809-816.
