Can plants get "fat"?

[Elite Engineer]

Mammals with excess adipose tissue are described as fat. Really, being overweight and/or obese is just a metabolic deficit, in which glycogen and triglycerides aren't being sufficiently used for energy. Overtime they build up in adipose cells, therefore increasing mass.

 

Can the same thing happen to plants?

 

Reduce the usage of a particular energy dense molecule, and instead just build it up in supply..therefore increasing mass? Perhaps obtain "excess" CO₂?

 

~EE

Edited March 4, 2017 by Elite Engineer

[Daecon]

Isn't that what tubers are?

[mistermack]

Yes, if plants don't get enough exercise they can become pretty obese. Just look at the Baobab tree.

 

[Elite Engineer]

Isn't that what tubers are?

I never knew these existed. Answered my question, thanks!

Yes, if plants don't get enough exercise they can become pretty obese. Just look at the Baobab tree.

 

Touche.

[BabcockHall]

IIUC party line is that plants store energy as sucrose or as starch. Certain eukaryotic microorganisms can store energy as triacylglycerols. IIRC there was some interest in making biodiesel using these organisms at one time.

[mistermack]

Plants don't use energy in the same way as animals, for getting around. If they have energy available to them, it's best to use it immediately, to grow, and compete better with their neighbours. That way, they invest the energy they have, to have better access to space and light and soil and water.

 

The most common need for a plant to store energy is in seeds, for it's offspring, or in tubers, as mentioned.

A seed can't use solar energy till it gets to a certain size, likewise a tuber, so they need an energy store.

Deciduous trees must store energy somewhere, so that they can produce buds in spring. I imagine it's probably just under the bark, around the vascular bundles. Or maybe in the roots. They don't seem to store any excess in re-usable form though.

They just put on more wood, in a good year and less in a bad.

[BabcockHall]

Some algae and other microorganisms can produce up to 50% of their mass as oils. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3152439/

[Velocity_Boy]

Mammals with excess adipose tissue are described as fat. Really, being overweight and/or obese is just a metabolic deficit, in which glycogen and triglycerides aren't being sufficiently used for energy. Overtime they build up in adipose cells, therefore increasing mass.

 

Can the same thing happen to plants?

 

Reduce the usage of a particular energy dense molecule, and instead just build it up in supply..therefore increasing mass? Perhaps obtain "excess" CO₂?

 

~EE

 

Fat is not the correct adjective when speaking of a Flora species that's not in it's optimal physical condition and thus suffers from too much mass. Since they are decidedly bereft of adipose tissue.

 

The overload of mass a plant can have would be in it's leaves. Thus proving too much tissue to feed via the xylems and phloem from the root system. Also, an overabundance of leafy matter can detract from the crucial portion of the plant that ensures it's survival.....The flowers. This is done via pollination from various insects. This is why many flowering plants require pruning.

 

But a plant don't get this way in the same manner as fauna. Which is from too many calories in and not enough burned via exercise. Feed s plant too much fertilizer...Nitrogen especially, and it is basically poisoned. Burned from within.

[mistermack]

Another factor in plants storing easy-to-access energy reserves, is that it would attract attention from plant-eating animals.

 

It could well be self-defeating, to make yourself an attractive meal, when you can't run away from the animals that would like to eat you.

 

If you evolve an energy store, some animal is going to evolve a way to eat it, and you end up worse off.

The plant would have to evolve successful defence mechanisms, along with evolving the store.

[Itoero]

Tubers are used to survive winter or a period with not much food.

It's a bit like animals that gain as much weight as possible before the winter.

 

To much food (over fertilizing), especially Nitrogen can cause an excess growth.

It's very interesting I think, you can for example 'debunk' an excess of nitrogen by adding an excess of Potassium.

Nitrogen is necessary to form chlorophyl and it seems that potassium plays a role in transporting Chlorophyl.