{"id":806,"date":"2024-01-17T09:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T09:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mechecolab.blogs.bristol.ac.uk\/?p=806"},"modified":"2024-01-17T09:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T09:09:26","slug":"pitcher-plant-trap-evolution-makes-the-front-cover-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?p=806","title":{"rendered":"Pitcher plant trap evolution makes the front cover of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Year started with a bang for the Mechanical Ecology Lab: our latest paper, explaining the independent evolution of the same complex &#8216;springboard trapping&#8217; mechanism in two distantly related <em>Nepenthes<\/em> pitcher plant species, is featured on the front cover of the first issue of <em>Science <\/em>for 2024!<\/p>\n<p>In the paper, we propose an explanation for how complex &#8216;composite&#8217; traits can arise from spontaneous coincidence of a trait combination with synergistic new function. Springboard trapping relies on three independent traits that only gain a trapping function when they coincide in the right combination. Until now, the origins of composite traits have remained largely a mystery as it requires coordinated evolution of components that might not be beneficial or even functional on their own. Our results highlight the importance of random trait variation &#8211; so-called stochastic phenotypic plasticity &#8211; and chance events in the generation of evolutionary novelty.<\/p>\n<p>The study involved an interdisciplinary team of biomechanists, biochemists and evolutionary biologists and took 7 years from the initial discovery that <em>N. pervillei<\/em> from the Seychelles and <em>N. gracilis <\/em>from Borneo share the same whacky springboard mechanism, to the final publication in <em>Science. <\/em>A beautiful example of the true magic that can happen when you pull together a team from very different backgrounds and disciplines.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-807\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanical-ecology-lab.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388-849x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388-849x1024.jpg 849w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388-249x300.jpg 249w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388-768x926.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388-1273x1536.jpg 1273w, https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20240105_060507-3411c7daabd1e388.jpg 1586w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Year started with a bang for the Mechanical Ecology Lab: our latest paper, explaining the independent evolution of&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/?p=806\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pitcher plant trap evolution makes the front cover of Science<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mechanicalecology.exeter.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}