If the theory of evolution is correct, why haven't plants evolved to be unpalatable? Now the fruit of the plant is sweet
The fruit exudes a fragrant smell and sweet taste, which is not only loved by humans, but also by many animals. Most animals have sweet-sensing genes for the purpose of enjoying the taste of fruit, including carnivores such as canines and bears. Sweet fruits The ancestors of human beings are ancient apes, and they also ate fruits at first, so humans can taste more fruits than ordinary animals. So why do plants want animals to eat their fruits? Isn't it supposed to hurt them? Animals eat fruitsFruits of plants
According to Darwinian evolution, the natural enemies of plants are animals, and they need to prevent themselves from being eaten. As a result, some plant genes mutate to produce unpalatable, poisonous, and unpleasant genes, and plants with these genes are more difficult to be eaten by animals. After generations of natural selection, the resulting plants are inedible by animals. Therefore, the fruit of the original plant would be very unpalatable, but the result is contrary to the theory of evolution, and the fruit of the plant becomes more and more delicious. Animals are eating the fruits of plants and the plants that will flower and bear fruit basically belong to the phylum Angiosperms and Gymnosperms, which are relatively advanced plant groups, and they evolved a special skill - flowering and fruiting during the Cretaceous period. Before this, the reproduction of plants was mainly by scattering spores in the air and using the wind to spread pollination. Flowering means that plants put their own reproductive cells in the "dish", which can help spread besides wind insects. The spread of insects is directional, and it can precisely send germ cells to the next plate, which undoubtedly increases the probability of successful pollination. Plants naturally pollinate those plants with more fragrant and sweeter pollen that are more easily cared for by insects, increasing the chances of leaving offspring. After fertilization, the plant begins to bear fruit. The so-called fruit includes two aspects, one is the peel and the other is the seed. Don't think that the peel is very thin when you hear it. The material that wraps the seed's outer layer is called the peel, and the pulp is also a part of the peel biologically. The role of the peel is to protect the seeds from external damage, and the other role is to provide nutrients to the seeds after they leave the plant. Therefore, the peel is rich in nutrients, most of which are various sugars, which make the fruits of most plants taste sweet. The sweeter the structure of the fruit, the more animals the peel can attract. The intestines of many animals can digest the peel but cannot digest the seeds, so the seeds will be excreted when the animal defecates. The seeds will stay in the belly of the animal and follow the animal for a long journey. It will not land at the station until the animal pulls the cake, ending the journey. At this time, it may be several kilometers away from its birthplace. Here, the seed takes root, grows into a mature plant, and participates in reproduction. Plants whose seeds germinate farther from home have a lower probability of inbreeding with their male or female parents. Although plants cannot speak, they still hope that their seeds can be taken by animals to take root and germinate further away. Therefore, from an evolutionary point of view, plants have evolved their own fruits to be unpalatable, which does not help their own reproduction. The better the fruit, the higher the probability of its seeds being spread. However, plants only want animals to eat their fruits, and do not want animals to eat themselves. Therefore, we can see a strange phenomenon, that is, the leaves of plants with delicious fruits may not be delicious. For example, the acacia tree on the African grasslands, its fruit animals are very fond of, but no animal dares to eat its leaves except for giraffes. Because it has evolved spikes to protect its leaves, and even evolved toxins in its leaves to fight giraffes. It can be seen that it is in line with the theory of evolution that the fruits of plants become delicious. It seems that animals determine the life and death of plant seeds, but in fact, animals are manipulated by plants! Giraffes eat the fruits of acacia artificially selected
plants and become delicious. This is inseparable from the help of humans. After all, our ancestors also ate fruits. Primates love to eat fruits. Humans are no exception, and as humans have mastered technology and biological knowledge, we have begun to transform plants. A bit of this makes the plant produce more, tastier fruit. In the absence of biotechnology, humans used screening methods to obtain better-tasting fruits. Humans only select the most delicious and reserved seeds for each generation of fruit planting. The accumulation of such generation after generation will result in more and more sugar in the fruit, and more and more aroma substances contained in it. Seeds with unpleasant peels are directly disposed of by humans, and there is no chance to leave offspring. Over time, the fruits cultivated by humans have been many times better than the first generation in terms of taste, and the most typical fruit is watermelon. The ancestor of watermelon is a cucurbit plant that lives in the desert. Its original pulp is white and the seeds are very hard and large. The ancestors of watermelons are more important because the original watermelon is poisonous, and people will dilute after eating it, so it has been used as medicine for a long time. About 4,000 years ago, the Egyptians cultivated gourds and obtained the earliest fruit watermelons. At this time, the flesh of the watermelons was pale pink and the taste was not sweet. From the oil paintings made by Europeans about 200 years ago, it can be seen that the appearance of watermelon is still very different from that of today, and the taste is not very delicious. The European aristocrats at that time only regarded it as an ornament. The watermelons in European oil paintings can be seen from this, the delicious fruits have gone a long way to reach human beings. They do not become delicious overnight, but require time to accumulate and accumulate. In fact, whether it is fruits or vegetables, it is the same. After all, fruits and vegetables are not separated, they are all plants. Cultivating plants is less restrictive and more efficient than cultivating animals. In addition, humans are omnivores, and we eat plants far more than meat. However, taste is not only the sole purpose of human cultivation of plants, it also involves yield and benefits. Today's watermelonNot all plants are delicious
Our country is the cradle of hybrid rice, but the rice we eat is not hybrid rice, because hybrid rice The taste is not good. Edible rice is all conventional rice. Hybrid rice is mainly used to make animal feed. In addition, there are tomatoes that are sold in the market now. Compared with the past tomato, its taste has become worse, and at the same time it has become More shelf-stable. Why do these human-grown plants become unpalatable? Grandpa Yuan and hybrid rice are mainly a relationship between supply and demand. Sometimes what humans need is not very good taste, but extremely high yield. In this process, taste is not the main consideration, so humans can discard it when cultivating. And because of the market, many foods now have to consider cost. We can see that the types of fruits and vegetables on the market are beginning to be simplified. The vegetables on each pavement are similar. Many fruits that were popular in the past have long since disappeared, and some vegetables are becoming more and more difficult to buy. The main reason is that there are not many benefits from planting them. The heat wave in 2022 made watermelon stand at the peak of summer fruits again, but it was found that the protagonist of watermelon this time became a unicorn melon, and the black beauty has long since disappeared. Black Beauty is a popular watermelon variety of the past, named for its shiny dark dark green rind. People like Black Beauty, not only because it is a seedless watermelon, but also because its water content is sweet and rich, and because its rind is very thick, you can use its rind for cooking after eating. With the accelerated pace of people's life, the black beauty watermelon has no extra energy to cook the watermelon peel. The thick peel of the black beauty puts it on the scale, which makes many people feel that it is not worth buying. On the contrary, the thin-skinned and seedless unicorn melon came into being, squeezed into the position of the black beauty, and became the new favorite of the watermelon class. In a few years, the unicorn melon will also be eliminated, and a new variety of watermelon with better traits will take its place, just as the black beauty replaced the old watermelon before. For today's creatures, they have to face not only natural selection, but also human selection. There are many extinct animals, not because they cannot adapt to the current natural environment, but because they cannot withstand the environment after human intervention. Watermelon rookie unicorn melon has such a huge power, is it lucky for human beings? Or unfortunate?