Color signals of bee-pollinated flowers: the significance of natural leaf background.

Premise: Flower color is a primary pollinator attractant and generally adjusted to the cognitive system of the pollinators. The perception of flower color depends on the visual system of pollinators and also on environmental factors such as light conditions and the background against which flowers are displayed.

Methods: Using bee-pollinated Fabaceae species as a model, we analyzed flower color diversity and compared flower color signals considering both the standard green and the natural leaf background of two tropical seasonally dry vegetations-a mountain rupestrian grassland (campo rupestre) and a woody savanna (cerrado)-compared to a nontropical Mediterranean shrubland.

Flowering Phenology and the Influence of Seasonality in Flower Conspicuousness for Bees.

Flowering patterns are crucial to understand the dynamics of plant reproduction and resource availability for pollinators. Seasonal climate constrains flower and leaf phenology, where leaf and flower colors likely differ between seasons. Color is the main floral trait attracting pollinators; however, seasonal changes in the leaf-background coloration affect the perception of flower color contrasts by pollinators.

Impact of gestational diabetes and lactational insulin replacement on structure and secretory function of offspring rat ventral prostate.

Clinical and experimental studies have shown that exposure to adverse conditions during the critical stages of embryonic, fetal or neonatal development lead to a significantly increased risk of later disease. Diabetes during pregnancy has been linked to increased risk of obesity and diabetes in offspring. Here, we investigated whether mild gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) followed or not by maternal insulin replacement affects the ventral prostate (VP) structure and function in male offspring at puberty and adulthood.