Plants from the Drosera genus, commonly known as sundews, look like alien organisms from a vintage science-fiction film. Their modified leaves resemble tentacles with hundreds of translucent sticky glands perched on top of long stalks. What looks to insects like a drop of delicious nectar is in fact sticky mucilage filled with deadly digesting hydrolases. A recent study led by Isheng J. Tsai from Taiwan shows that this mucilage contains one dominant species of acidophilic fungus with the frightening name Acrodontium crateriforme.

A series of elegant experiments demonstrates that this fungus can facilitate the assimilation of nutrients from a trapped insect by increasing protein degradation. Genome sequencing suggests that evolutionary changes such as gene losses and genomic structural variations are signs of specialization as a plant symbiont. Dynamic transcriptome analysis of both the plant and the fungus during digestion showed molecular cooperation, leading to a synergistic digestive effect thanks to coordinated expression of hydrolases, peptidases and nutrient transporters. This interaction benefited both plant and fungus, and is a wonderful example of two organisms working as one holobiont in a symbiotic partnership. Sometimes collaboration is better than fighting and competition.