Afterglow of Plant Warmth Illuminates Pollination Millions of Years Later

Thermogenesis in plants may have driven insect pollination for over 200 million years, shaping plant-insect relationships.

Some plants have the ability to raise their temperature above that of the surrounding air, an ability called thermogenesis. In a review article published in Nature Plants, David Peris and colleagues examine the origin of thermogenesis and conclude it may have played a crucial role in developing the co-associations between plants and their pollinating insects in the distant past.

One of the claims the authors make is that thermogenesis is extremely old, possibly dating back over 200 million years. They point to the existence of thermogenesis in cycads, gymnosperms and angiosperms, flowering plants. They say that while heat doesn’t remain in the fossil record, they can study current thermogenic plants and comparing their features with those of the fossil records.

Heat production gives plants a competitive advantage. By warming up, plants can release their scents more effectively, acting like beacons for insects and increasing the chances of successful pollination. Intriguingly, the study indicates that thermogenesis and its role in attracting insects existed before flowering plants evolved, challenging the idea that complex plant-pollinator relationships only began with the appearance of flowers.

Most cases of Mesozoic pollination also involve thermogenic or potential thermogenic plant lineages. This legacy implies that insects visited thermogenetic plants to obtain energy for flight, compete for mates, seek food and gain protection against an inclement environment earlier in their evolutionary history, thus subsequently facilitating insect pollination. We hypothesize that thermogenesis predated angiosperm diversification and the use of odours, VOCs or alternative by-product attraction methods, but also preceded floral colour or other characters and products for the attraction of pollinator insects.

Peris, D., Postigo-Mijarra, J.M., Peñalver, E. et al. The impact of thermogenesis on the origin of insect pollination. Nat. Plants (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01775-z ($)
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