|
Worming their way around plant defences
Our paper in Nature Communications is published! We report how earthworms produce a unique class of compounds in their gut that this provides protection against the damaging effects of plant chemical defenses. Highlight in Nature Chemical Biology and in the Spotlight of ACS Chemical Biology |
Plants make polyphenols, which act as antioxidants and give the plants their colour; they also inhibit the digestion of many herbivores. Earthworms, however, are able to digest fallen leaves and other plant material, thanks to the ability of drilodefensins to counteract polyphenols.We found that the more polyphenols present in the earthworm diet, the more drilodefensins they produce in their guts.
The finding that the molecules are abundant in the gut of earthworms was made possible by using modern visualization techniques based on mass spectrometry (MALDI imaging). Using these molecular microscopes is changing how we understand complex biochemistry of living beings; we are now able to locate every molecule in, for example, an earthworm to a specific location. Knowing the location of a molecule can help us to figure out what it actually does.
See the paper with the open access raw data for our 3D model of an earthworm (acquired via µCT, Dr. Alexander Ziegler). Sine Systemate Chaos? A Versatile Tool for Earthworm Taxonomy: Non-Destructive Imaging of Freshly Fixed and Museum Specimens Using Micro-Computed Tomography
Media responses for drilodefensin story
This link takes you to Altmetric.com - Altmetric collects mentions of scholarly articles from all across the Web by gathering attention from newspapers, blogs, social media, and more.
international
ChemistryWorld - Unique compounds let earthworms finish off leaves
The Guardian - Answer to earthworm's ability to digest poisons unearthed by scientists
Washington Post - We finally know what worms use to digest dead leaves, and we’d be in deep trouble without it
ScienceNews - Plants’ ‘don’t-eat-me’ chemicals no problem for earthworms
national
bild der wissenschaft - So schützt sich der Regenwurm gegen Pflanzengift
Max Planck Society - Regenwürmer schützen sich gegen schädliche Pflanzenstoffe
ChemistryWorld - Unique compounds let earthworms finish off leaves
The Guardian - Answer to earthworm's ability to digest poisons unearthed by scientists
Washington Post - We finally know what worms use to digest dead leaves, and we’d be in deep trouble without it
ScienceNews - Plants’ ‘don’t-eat-me’ chemicals no problem for earthworms
national
bild der wissenschaft - So schützt sich der Regenwurm gegen Pflanzengift
Max Planck Society - Regenwürmer schützen sich gegen schädliche Pflanzenstoffe
|
|
