The potential for floral evolution in response to competing selection pressures following the loss of hawkmoth pollination in Ruellia humilis.

Premise: In the absence of hawkmoth pollinators, chasmogamous (CH) flowers of Ruellia humilis self-pollinate by two secondary mechanisms. Other floral visitors might exert selection on CH floral traits to restore outcrossing, but at the same time preferential predation of CH seeds generates selection to increase the allocation of resources to cleistogamous (CL) flowers.

Methods: To assess the potential for an evolutionary response to these competing selection pressures, we estimated additive genetic variances ( ) and covariances for 14 reproductive traits and three fitness components in a Missouri population lacking hawkmoth pollinators.

Search for Low-Mass Quark-Antiquark Resonances Produced in Association with a Photon at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

A search for narrow low-mass resonances decaying to quark-antiquark pairs is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events collected at 13 TeV by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.

Tbx3-Mediated Regulation of Cardiac Conduction System Development and Function: Potential Contributions of Alternative RNA Processing.

In this article, we provide a brief summary of work by us and others to discover the molecular underpinnings of early conduction system development and function. We focus on how the multifunctional protein Tbx3 contributes to acquisition and homeostasis of the tissue-specific properties of the sinoatrial and atrioventricular nodes. We also provide unpublished, preliminary findings supporting the role of Tbx3-regulated alternative RNA processing in the developing conduction system.

Visualizing Mutation-Specific Differences in the Trafficking-Deficient Phenotype of Kv11.1 Proteins Linked to Long QT Syndrome Type 2.

encodes the Kv11.1 α-subunit that underlies the rapidly activating delayed-rectifier K current in the heart. Loss-of-function mutations cause long QT syndrome type 2 (LQT2), and most LQT2-linked missense mutations inhibit the trafficking of Kv11.

Genetic and environmental integration of the hawkmoth pollination syndrome in Ruellia humilis (Acanthaceae).

Background And Aims: The serial homology of floral structures has made it difficult to assess the relative contributions of selection and constraint to floral integration. The interpretation of floral integration may also be clouded by the tacit, but largely untested, assumption that genetic and environmental perturbations affect trait correlations in similar ways. In this study, estimates of both the genetic and environmental correlations between components of the hawkmoth pollination syndrome are presented for chasmogamous flowers of Ruellia humilis , including two levels of control for serial homology.