Carnivorous plants capture and digest small animals and absorb the nutrients as nitrogen and phosphate source to be adaptive in poor nutrient environment. To be functional in carnivory, trap leaves with the special morphology, the digestive enzymes and their secretion system, and the absorption mechanism have to evolve altogether. Since evolution of one of the traits is not adaptive and is rather less adaptive, it is difficult to explain how such a complex system evolved with passing a valley of adaptive landscape. We investigate the molecular mechanisms of the traits and infer the evolution of the novel complex traits.

1. Development of carnivorous pitcher leaves of Sarracenia purpurea
2. Evolution of digestive enzymes
3. Molecular Mechanisms of Memory of Dionaea muscipula leaves
   (link to "Mechanisms and evolution of plant movement")
4. Molecular mechanisms of plasticity in Cephalotus follicularis
5. Genome analysis of Drosera spatulata and development and evolution of tentacles, and homology between Drosera and Dionaea traps.
6. Development and evolution of Nepenthes pitcher leaves