The effect of temperature on the electrophysiology and behavior of venus flytraps

In a collaboration between researchers at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute & Princeton Public Schools, we began a research and outreach project to investigate Dionaea muscipula, more commonly known as Venus Flytraps, electrophysiology and teach elementary school students about our findings. This plant exhibits a gating function wherein sequential activations of a “trigger hair,” a sense organ that detects disturbances in the trap, will cause the trap to shut. We examine how both the behavior and spike-characteristics of the Venus Flytrap respond to robust changes in ambient temperatures. We discovered that heat dramatically prolonged the gating function and also appears to simultaneously alter the structure of triggered action potentials; specifically, the ‘memory’ of the trap increased from 1 minute to 2.667 minute from room temperature to an elevated temperature (>30°C). We suspect that temperature-dependent proteins could account for the increase in plant “memory” between action potentials in heated plants. To test out this hypothesis, we will collect more data at a broader range of temperatures and examine changing protein expression profiles. This past year, we expanded our project to include an outreach component, wherein we designed and presented an hour-and-a-half long workshop for elementary school-age children. By evaluating growth through a self-designed SGO (student growth objective), we were able to quantify and evaluate our results and look to present at more venues. It was observed that after presentation the children's knowledge in the Pannell center about Venus Flytraps increased by 8.45% and in Plainsboro, the children's knowledge increased by 21.23%, as assessed through SGOs.