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"Things got really exciting, however, when we discovered that the anesthetized traps can perceive touch locally, but cannot transmit it," says Sönke Scherzer, the first author of the paper.Įvery touch of the sensory hairs leads to the release of the signal molecule calcium in the Venus flytrap. Venus flytrap provides information about the mechanism of action of ether Thus, its reaction is not different from that of a patient, as Hedrich's team reports in the journal Scientific Reports. Investigations of the trap memory even showed that the trap cannot "remember" touches during anesthesia. This way, the Würzburg researchers found out that the Venus flytrap can be anesthetized, similar to a human being, and that it does not react to touch during this time. That's why we had an explosion-protected device made so that we could work safely without blowing up the whole institute," reports Dr. "Explosions resulting in death unfortunately occurred repeatedly in the medical use of ether. Safety precautions against explosions had to be takenīefore anesthetizing the plant, however, there were some tricky hurdles to overcome in order to be able to use the highly explosive ether gas. "So it made sense to test whether and how ether affects the carnivorous plant's sense of touch." But they do transmit electrical information in their conductive tissue, for example to close the trap at lightning speed: "In 2016, we were able to show that the Venus flytrap, like a human, can not only perceive touch, but also count and remember the APs it has fired," explains the Würzburg professor. It is true that plants do not have a distinct nervous system. The electrical impulses (action potentials, APs) of the flytrap are comparable to those of our nervous system. In response to such stimuli, electrical impulses are triggered and transmitted extremely quickly to catch animal prey," Hedrich explains. "Unlike most other plants, the Venus flytrap is particularly sensitive to touch. He has already achieved many groundbreaking insights into the life of this carnivorous plant. Professor Rainer Hedrich's team has been leading research on the Venus flytrap for over ten years. This is where plant researchers from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, have now stepped in. Venus flytrap has a distinctive system for stimulus transmission One reason for this is certainly that humans are a very delicate research subject. Even with modern anesthetics, it is often unclear how and where they function. However, the exact mechanism of action has never been elucidated. He concluded that plants and animals must have a common biological essence that is disturbed by anesthetics.Įther anesthetics were used during surgery, childbirth and in palliative treatment to take away patients' pain. Claude Bernard proved in 1878 that the touch-sensitive plant Mimosa pudica did not react to touch under the influence of ether by closing its leaves. Remarkably, anaesthetisation is also possible in plants. Since then, this anesthetic has served as one of the main anesthetics worldwide for over 100 years. As early as 1842, ether was first used for a dental treatment in New York. Medicine has a broad repertoire of anesthetics at its medication allows patients to better endure painful treatments or even sleep through them.