Pitcher plants use digestive enzymes to break down insects and use them as a nitrogen source. In a paper published in the Journal of Proteome Research, Naoya Hatano and Tatsuro Hamada used proteomic analysis to identify the full suite of enzymes that are present in pitcher fluid of Nepenthes alata. In addition to enzymes which break down proteins (which had been previously isolated) they found several proteins believed to inhibit bacterial growth.
Source: PhysOrg.com
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