Lecture 21 Partners and Robbers 2

The last lecture reviewed relationships between organisms that at least at some stage could be
considered equal partnerships - mutualistic symbioses. These were 2 organisms living together
where both derive some benefit from the association. We considered lichens, where the
“partnership” is often portrayed as similar to corals and algae, or anemones and dinoflagellates –
mutually beneficial - but it is not that simple. In a lichen, almost as many photoautotrophic cells
are killed as survive – this could be described as “controlled parasitism”. The aim of this lecture is
to review some of the diversity of such relationships – where one organism benefits considerably
more than the other, culminating in consideration of robbers - complete parasites.

Lichens are associations between a fungus and one or more photoautotrophic organisms (either
green algae, which supply only photosynthate, or cyanobacteria, which can supply both
photosynthate or fixed nitrogen, and sometimes both). As in Azolla, corals, etc, the fungus creates
a change in the algal cells – they “leak” photosynthates (and in lichens with cyanobacterial
symbionts there is a far higher proportion of heterocysts than in free-living cyanobacteria).
Furthermore, fungal hyphae envelop the algal cells extensively [handout from last lecture]. Some
algal cells are penetrated and die, the walls of those that survive become permeable and lose
photosynthate to the fungus. The fungus attaches to the algal cells via haustoria – which clamp
onto and sometimes penetrate the algal cells and kill them.

A second year course on Parasitology focuses specifically on animal parasites – hence they have
had only a brief mention in this unit, but remember that these include not only microscopic
organisms (many protozoa) but also arthropods – e.g. arachnids such as the tick [handout], some
of which transmit other parasites [e.g. see completely optional extra reading only if interested or if
going out in the field/on a field course, as there are preventive methods described:
http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/ticks.htm]; insects; annelid worms and even mammals, such
as the vampire bat [see www.arkive.org/common-vampire-bat/desmodus-rotundus/video-08d.html
for the footage from the lecture – notice how the bat moves quite comfortably across the ground
and can feed relatively undetected once it has bitten the seal pup - razor sharp teeth and
anticoagulants/anaesthetic. See also the “Vampire Bats” section of:
http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/data/articles/new_articles/articles_main.html) [the media output will
certainly be of interest to “Biology with Science and Society” students]. Vampire bats are unusual
in being quite speedy on the ground as they can tuck their wings under their forearms.

A parasite can be defined as “an organism that for all or some of its life derives its food from a
living organism of another species, usually living in or on the body or cells of the host, which is
usually harmed to some extent by the parasite”. Every living thing has at least one parasite living
in or on it, and most have considerably more.

It is not only animals like the mosquito and vampire bat that derive nutrition (“rob”) from animals –
some plants also supplement their nutrition by digesting animal tissues.

Carnivorous plants [37.15] (sometimes referred to as parasites). In the Venus’ fly trap, trigger
hairs on modified leaf blades are supremely well co-ordinated to only cause action potential that
causes the trap formed to close upon its insect (or even small amphibian) prey when several
signals are received (so they are not triggered when wind or debris stimulates the modified leaves
[see the BBC Life programme on Plants – excerpt in “movies from the lectures” – there is some
superb close-up footage of hatching mosquitoes and of the sponging and lapping mouthparts of a
fly; handout] at over 100 metres per second [if interested in physics see the handout, and paper
and links in “How the Venus flytrap snaps” Nature 433, 421-425 (27 January 2005) |
doi:10.1038/nature03185
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v433/n7024/full/nature03185.html#B2]. The arthropods
which are trapped are digested via biochemical processes very similar to animal systems – the
plant has autotrophic leaves but shows heterotrophic supplementary nutrition of trapped prey.
There are similar systems in many other plants. All such relationships share a lack of sufficient
plant nutrients in the environment eg Venus’ fly trap is bog plant – very low in nitrogen. The best
British examples are probably the bladderwort and sundew (Drosera), [handout; 37.14 and end of
the movie mentioned above]. There are many species of sundew, all characteristic of nutrient-
poor bogs. In some, large glandular hairs secrete “dew”-like sticky secretion, they, usually along
with and digestive glands on the leaf surface, secrete catabolic enzymes. Arthropods are
attracted to “dew” and become stuck, additional signals within the plants then cause the outer
region of each lobe of the leaf to accumulate water and enlarge, so leaf changes shape and can
engulf then digest prey [handout]. Other sundews have recently been shown to have a dynamic
mechanism which includes snap tentacles – see the movie at https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=mDSmtZFr0_0&feature=player_embedded and for the explanation of what is going on, see
both the easy-to-read simple account at
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120927091534.htm and the paper from which the
latter was written http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi
%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0045735.

Modified leaf parts are also put to effective use in pitcher plants. Trumpet pitchers have leaves
folded lengthways into a vertical tube that fills with liquid. Trumpets have flower-like tops - brightly
coloured, and with nectar to “reward” visitors, but backward slanting hairs and/or waxy specialised
cells cause them to drop into the trap (where they are digested) if they lose their footing. Insects
cannot climb out because the secretions on the pads of their feet are inactivated by the waxes on
the plant surface, or because the tiny hairs on the pads of the feet (cf. geckos) get stuck together
with waxes [handout – taken from Arthropod Structure and Development 33: 103-111; 2004].

To review the movie shown in the lecture and (if you are interested in carnivorous plants) read the
full story of the mechanisms that ensure prey attraction, capture and retention see “Gotcha! Flesh
eating plants set a wily trap” New Sci 4th June 2008 -
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826591.600-gotcha-flesheating-plants-set-a-wily-
trap.html and see some of the latest research (picture on the handout) in ‘Fluorescent prey traps
in carnivorous plants’ by Kurup et al., Plant Biology 2013 vol. 15   Issue: 3   Pages: 611-615   DOI:
10.1111/j.1438-8677.2012.00709).

Bladderworts are my favourite carnivorous plants – they are very widespread and very successful,
all are in the genus Utricularia (utriculus = little bag) [handout] and trap tiny to quite large prey
using an exceptionally fast and efficient mechanism. The mechanism is explained in the BSR
article on Bladderworts on BB, or (again, if you are interested in carnivorous plants) you can
watch the engaging movie explanation on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_SLZFsMyQ

Plants not only ‘rob’ animals, they also rob other plants. The most familiar of such relationships is
probably mistletoe [handout, 37.15] – a “half parasite” (hemiparasite) with no roots but green
leaves (so not a complete parasite - can photosynthesise). Mistletoe gains all its water and
mineral requirements from its host plant. In some environments [one in Australia in movie]
mistletoes are so numerous that a bird (the “Mistletoe bird”) feeds almost exclusively on
mistletoes. This specialist bird knows exactly how to extract the fruit – the fleshy outer layer of
which is quickly removed and digested by the bird (30 minutes for seed to travel from beak to
twig), which does a special ‘dance’ to remove the sticky seed – which ensures adherence of the
parasite to the branch of a host tree [handout].

Some species of plants have almost or completely abandoned autotrophy. A classic example is
the Indian pipe (“ghost plant”; 37.15) – a parasitic angiosperm that derives its nutrition from
mycorrhizal associations – it has no photosynthetic tissue at all. Dodder (Cuscuta) is an
angiosperm parasite, e.g. of tomatoes; nettles [handout; movie; 37.15]. It twines around its host
and sends in haustoria to both the phloem and xylem which suck out all it needs [handout]
biochemistry and plant sciences students might like to read New Sci 26 th March 2011 46-49
“Heard it on the grapevine: The secret society of plants”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928051.500-heard-it-on-the-grapevine-the-secret-
society-of-plants.html* (see especially “Scent of a victim”). The seedlings cannot photosynthesise
but can detect the biochemical signals of a healthy host to parasitise. The parasite derives almost
all its requirements for growth and reproduction (organic compounds, water and minerals) from its
host. (No leaves).

The most extreme plant parasite is Rafflesia [movie & handout; 30.14]. Like the ghost plant, this
plant is a complete heterotroph, but this one has no roots, leaves or even stem, but exists for
most of its life as hair-like filaments (cf. fungal hyphae) that ramify through the host [e.g. vine in
Borneo – movie]. The parasite produces occasional flowers (cf. fruiting structures of mycorrhizal
fungi) which look and smell like a putrefying corpse. Blowflies are lured by the smell. They are
daubed with pollen when they enter the elaborate flower, then fly off to visit another of these
enormous and bizarre flowers (largest single flower on earth – the plant has no problem getting
the metabolic energy together to make this – the host does that). Rafflesia therefore uses
olfactory signals to lure carrion-fly pollinators on the rare occasions it generates a flower.

Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by the huge flowers of this species, and we now
know that the plant is a member of the Spurge family, the Euphorbiaceae – most of which have
tiny flowers [students of molecular biology; genetics and plant sciences might be interested to
read the article in Science (see “Floral gigantism in Rafflesia”
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5820/1812)

[All movies extracted from BBCs Private Life of Plants or Life and on “movies from the lectures”] 

BIOL10511Lecture Key learning outcomes Key words

Understand what parasitism is Parasite
21
Carnivorous plant

Question for (PASS) discussion

As pitcher plants, sundews and bladderworts are so successful and effective, why aren’t there
more carnivorous plants in the world?