STUDY ON THE ROLE OF GLUCANASES IN DIGESTION OF CARNIVOROUS PLANT DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA L.

Abstract

Glucanases act as plant defense enzymes which are induced in plants under diverse stress but also non-stress conditions. They have many different roles in plants including normal physiological and developmental processes as well as stress response. Interestingly, in a few earlier studies they have also been detected in the digestive mucilage of traps of carnivorous plants. Here we show that glucanases are present and active in the digestive fluid of sundew. Their activity is upon induction of digestion processes significantly increased comparing to controls. Our data showed that laminarin, a polymeric β-glucan as artificial substrate for these enzymes, is gradually decomposed in the time period of plant digestion. At the same time,a temporal increase but subsequent decrease ofamount of reduced oligosaccharides was observed indicating to its assimilation by glands/leaves. Therefore we assume that plant glucanasesmight contribute to digestion processes of carnivorous sundew.