PTOOEY! Plant Poison Turns Seed-Eating Mouse into Seed Spitter

Credit: Michal Samuni-Blank, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

A spiny mouse from Israel’s Negev Desert starts eating berries from the shrub Ochradenus baccatus (upper left). It soon spits seeds into its paws (upper right) and onto the ground (lower right and lower left). If the seeds were chewed at the same time as the fruit pulp, toxic chemicals would be released. So the plant has effectively turned the mouse from a seed-eater into a seed-spreader to help the plant reproduce, according to a new study from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Utah and other institutions.

« PTOOEY! Plant Poison Turns Seed-Eating Mouse into Seed Spitter

Credit: Michal Samuni-Blank, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Immature berries of the Middle East desert shrub Ochradenus baccatus, also known as sweet mignonette or taily weed. If the seeds are chewed at the same time as the fruit pulp, the berries release a toxic “mustard oil bomb.” A new study by Israeli and University of Utah scientists shows that toxic reaction prompts spiny mice to spit out the seeds when they eat the berries, effectively helping the plant reproduce.

« PTOOEY! Plant Poison Turns Seed-Eating Mouse into Seed Spitter

Credit: Michal Samuni-Blank, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

A spiny mouse from Israel is shown spitting seeds from the desert shrub Ochradenus baccatus into its paws and onto the ground as it eats the berries. If the seeds are chewed simultaneously with the berry pulp, toxic chemicals are released. So the plant has made a normally seed-eating mouse become a seed-spitter that spreads the plant’s seeds, helping it reproduce, says a new study from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Utah, University of Haifa and University of Wisconsin, Madison.

« PTOOEY! Plant Poison Turns Seed-Eating Mouse into Seed Spitter

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