How the Venus flytrap snaps

By Yoël Forterre, J. Skotheim, J. Dumais, L. Mahadevan. Nature, 2005

1,021 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The rapid closure of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) leaf in about 100 ms is one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom. This led Darwin to describe the plant as “one of the most wonderful in the world”. The trap closure is initiated by the mechanical stimulation of trigger hairs. Previous studies have focused on the biochemical response of the trigger hairs to stimuli and quantified the propagation of action potentials in the leaves. Here we complement these studies by considering the post-stimulation mechanical aspects of Venus flytrap closure. Using high-speed video imaging, non-invasive microscopy techniques and a simple theoretical model, we show that the fast closure of the trap results from a snap-buckling instability, the onset of which is controlled actively by the plant. Our study identifies an ingenious solution to scaling up movements in non-muscular engines and provides a general framework for understanding nastic motion in plants.

Subfields: Physiology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f3aacc7b57c3315813498b1a0182b5cdc2645c01

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Physiology

1. C. Maurini
2. S. Vidoli

In Plant Science

1. Matthias Erb
2. S. Vidoli
3. C. Maurini
4. Joanna Aizenberg
5. G. Howe
6. P. Fratzl
7. Stefan Meldau
8. Tak-Sing Wong

Citations in the corpus

• Bio-inspired soft robotics: Material selection, actuation, and design (2018, background): “One more specific example is based on how the venus fly trap is capable of rapid actuation by the release of elastic instabilities by chemical processes [52].”
• Multiparameter actuation for shape control of bistable composite plates (2010, background): “Zhang and Dunn, 2004), biological systems (Forterre et al., 2005; Dervaux and Ben Amar, 2008).”
• Role of phytohormones in insect-specific plant reactions (2012, background): “The Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula), for example, closes immediately when its sensory hairs are stimulated by insects [6].”
• Interfacial materials with special wettability (2013, background): “on hierarchical micro/nanoscale textures to trap a thin layer of air (Figure 1a), which then acts as a cushion against liquids and helps to keep the surface clean by carrying away dirt – the lotus effect (6); springtails, arthropods that live in the soil, have evolved overhanging nanostructured skin”
• Biomaterial systems for mechanosensing and actuation (2009, background): “The closure of the Venus flytrap has been studied, and its physical principle has been modelle”