Leaves of the carnivorous sundew plants (
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Abstract Drosera spp.) secrete mucilage that hosts microorganisms, but whether this microbiota contributes to prey digestion is unclear. We identified the acidophilic fungusAcrodontium crateriforme as the dominant species in the mucilage microbial communities, thriving in multiple sundew species across the global range. The fungus grows and sporulates on sundew glands as its preferred acidic environment, and its presence in traps increased the prey digestion process.A. crateriforme has a reduced genome similar to other symbiotic fungi. DuringA. crateriforme –Drosera spatulata coexistence and digestion of prey insects, transcriptomes revealed significant gene co-option in both partners. Holobiont expression patterns during prey digestion further revealed synergistic effects in several gene families including fungal aspartic and sedolisin peptidases, facilitating prey digestion in leaves, as well as nutrient assimilation and jasmonate signalling pathway expression. This study establishes that botanical carnivory is defined by adaptations involving microbial partners and interspecies interactions.Free, publicly-accessible full text available October 1, 2025 -
Streaming codes eliminate the queueing delay and are an appealing candidate for low latency communications. This work studies the tradeoff between error probability p_e and decoding deadline ∆ of infinite-memory random linear streaming codes (RLSCs) over i.i.d. symbol erasure channels (SECs). The contributions include (i) Proving pe(∆) ∼ ρ∆^{−1.5}e^{−η∆}. The asymptotic power term ∆^{−1.5} of RLSCs is a strict improvement over the ∆^{−0.5} term of random linear block codes; (ii) Deriving a pair of upper and lower bounds on the asymptotic constant ρ, which are tight (i.e., identical) for one specific class of SECs; (iii) For any c > 1 and any decoding deadline ∆, the c-optimal memory length α^*_c (∆) is defined as the minimal memory length α needed for the resulting pe to be within a factor of c of the best possible p^*_e under any α, an important piece of information for practical implementation. This work studies and derives new properties of α^*_c (∆) based on the newly developed asymptotics.more » « less
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We study how channel width variations influence the dynamics of free-surface granular flows. For this purpose, we extend a continuum model framework to granular flows passing through channels that narrow or widen. Our theory uses a linearized approximation to an established dense granular flow rheology and a Coulomb friction law to model interaction between flow and sidewalls. We test the theoretical predictions using two novel 40 cm-diameter drums (convex and concave) filled halfway with 2 mm diameter particles rotated at rates in which the shear layer remains shallow and dense. We apply particle tracking velocimetry to enable quantitative comparisons between experimental data and theoretical predictions. We find that our experimental kinematics and energy profiles largely agree with the theoretical predictions. In general, flows through narrowing channels are faster and deeper than flows through widening channels. The influence of width variations grows with increasing flow speed, and the form of the rate dependence changes fundamentally as the regime changes from one in which kinetic energy is dissipated locally to one in which it is advected downstream. For both regimes, theoretical scaling analysis leads us to experimentally validated power laws, in which the exponent depends on the flow regime, and the multiplicative coefficient depends on channel geometry alone. Finally, we discuss how the differences between theoretical predictions and experimental data may be useful for improving our understanding of flows through non-uniform channels.