Floral trait variation across individual plants within a population enhances defense capability to nectar robbing.

Floral trait variation may help pollinators and nectar robbers identify their target plants and, thus, lead to differential selection pressure for defense capability against floral antagonists. However, the effect of floral trait variation among individuals within a population on multi-dimensional plant-animal interactions has been little explored. We investigated floral trait variation, pollination, and nectar robbing among individual plants in a population of the bumble bee-pollinated plant, , from which flowers are also robbed by bumble bees with varying intensity across individuals.

Intergeneric Relationships within the Early-Diverging Angiosperm Family Nymphaeaceae Based on Chloroplast Phylogenomics.

The order Nymphaeales, consisting of three families with a record of eight genera, has gained significant interest from botanists, probably due to its position as a basal angiosperm. The phylogenetic relationships within the order have been well studied; however, a few controversial nodes still remain in the Nymphaeaceae. The position of the genus and the monophyly of the Nymphaeaceae family remain uncertain.

Investigating the molecular basis for heterophylly in the aquatic plant (Potamogetonaceae) with comparative transcriptomics.

Many plant species exhibit different leaf morphologies within a single plant, or heterophylly. The molecular mechanisms regulating this phenomenon, however, have remained elusive. In this study, the transcriptomes of submerged and floating leaves of an aquatic heterophyllous plant, Poir, at different stages of development, were sequenced using high-throughput sequencing (RNA-Seq), in order to aid gene discovery and functional studies of genes involved in heterophylly.

Sequential stamen maturation and movement in a protandrous herb: mechanisms increasing pollination efficiency and reducing sexual interference.

Successive stamen movement directly controls pollen presentation schedules through sequential stamen maturation and changes the extent of herkogamy by altering the positions of sexual organs. However, the implications of such movements in terms of pollination are not well understood. Pollen presentation theory predicts that staggered pollen presentation should be favoured when plants are subject to diminishing returns on pollen transfer.

Two LEAFY homologs ILFY1 and ILFY2 control reproductive and vegetative developments in Isoetes L.

LEAFY (LFY) is a plant-specific transcription factor, which is found in algae and all land plants. LFY homologs exert ancestral roles in regulating cell division and obtain novel functions to control floral identity. Isoetes L.

Comparative analysis of the RTFL peptide family on the control of plant organogenesis.

Plant peptides play important roles in various aspects of plant growth and development. The RTFL/DVL family includes small peptides that are widely conserved among land plants. Overexpression of six RTFL genes in Arabidopsis was suggestive of their functions as negative regulators of cell proliferation and as positional cues along the longitudinal axis of the plant body .

Terrimonas arctica sp. nov., isolated from Arctic tundra soil.

A novel, Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped bacterium, designated R9-86(T), was isolated from tundra soil collected near Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard Archipelago, Norway (78° N). Growth occurred at 4-28 °C (optimum, 22-25 °C) and at pH 6.0-9.

Desertibacter xinjiangensis sp. nov., isolated from the soil of a Euphrates poplar forest, and emended description of the genus Desertibacter.

A pale pink and strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain M71(T), was isolated from the soil of a Euphrates poplar forest in Xingjiang, PR China. Cells of the strain were Gram-reaction-negative, rod-shaped and motile by means of a single polar flagellum. Growth occurred at 10-37 °C (optimum 30 °C), at pH 6.

Change of floral orientation within an inflorescence affects pollinator behavior and pollination efficiency in a bee-pollinated plant, Corydalis sheareri.

Vertical raceme or spike inflorescences that are bee-pollinated tend to present their flowers horizontally. Horizontal presentation of flowers is hypothesized to enhance pollinator recognition and pollination precision, and it may also ensure greater consistency of pollinator movement on inflorescences. We tested the hypotheses using bee-pollinated Corydalis sheareri which has erect inflorescences consisting of flowers with horizontal orientation.

Pollination in a patchily distributed lousewort is facilitated by presence of a co-flowering plant due to enhancement of quantity and quality of pollinator visits.

Background And Aims: Plants surrounded by individuals of other co-flowering species may suffer a reproductive cost from interspecific pollen transfer (IPT). However, differences in floral architecture may reduce or eliminate IPT.

Methods: A study was made of Pedicularis densispica (lousewort) and its common co-flowering species, Astragalus pastorius, to compare reproductive and pollination success of lousewort plants from pure and mixed patches.

Mucilaginibacter soli sp. nov., isolated from Arctic tundra soil.

A novel pale-pink-coloured strain, designated R9-65(T), was isolated from a tundra soil near Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard Archipelago, Norway (78° N). The cells were facultatively anaerobic, Gram-staining-negative, non-motile and rod-shaped. Growth occurred at 4-32 °C (optimum, 25-28 °C), at pH 5.

The presence of co-flowering species facilitates reproductive success of Pedicularis monbeigiana (Orobanchaceae) through variation in bumble-bee foraging behaviour.

Background and Aims The presence of co-flowering species can alter pollinator foraging behaviour and, in turn, positively or negatively affect the reproductive success of the focal species. Such interactions were investigated between a focal species, Pedicularis monbeigiana, and a co-flowering species, Vicia dichroantha, which was mediated by behaviour alteration of the shared bumble-bee pollinator. Methods Floral display size and floral colour change of P.

Function and evolution of sterile sex organs in cryptically dioecious Petasites tricholobus (Asteraceae).

Background And Aims: Why are sterile anthers and carpels retained in some flowering plants, given their likely costs? To address this question, a cryptically dioecious species, Petasites tricholobus, in which male and female plants each have two floret types that appear pistillate and hermaphroditic, was studied. The aim was to understand the function of sterile hermaphroditic florets in females. In addition, the first examination of functions of sterile female structures in male plants was conducted in the hermaphroditic florets on males of this species.

Differential effects of nectar robbing by the same bumble-bee species on three sympatric Corydalis species with varied mating systems.

Background And Aims: Most research on the widespread phenomenon of nectar robbing has focused on the effect of the nectar robbers' behaviour on host-plant fitness. However, attention also needs be paid to the characteristics of host plants, which can potentially influence the consequences of nectar robbing as well. A system of three sympatric Corydalis species sharing the same nectar-robbing bumble-bee was therefore studied over 3 years in order to investigate the effect of nectar robbing on host reproductive fitness.

Reproductive consequences of interactions between clonal growth and sexual reproduction in Nymphoides peltata: a distylous aquatic plant.

Distyly is a sexual polymorphism in which plant populations contain two floral morphs differing in morphology and physiology. The dimorphism serves to promote animal-mediated cross-pollination between the floral morphs. Clonal propagation can interfere with the functioning of distyly by compromising intermorph pollinations, resulting in reduced fertility.

Temporal floral sex allocation in protogynous Aquilegia yabeana contrasts with protandrous species: support for the mating environment hypothesis.

We tested one of the predictions of Brunet and Charlesworth (1995) that relative floral sex allocation will vary temporally with the mating environment and that the form of dichogamy (protandry vs. protogyny) will select for the pattern of variation in male versus female resource allocation. In many hermaphroditic plant species, allocation to female function (ovule number) decreases from early to late flowers within inflorescences as a result of resource limitation or ontogenetic changes.

Gender variation of sequential inflorescences in a monoecious plant Sagittaria trifolia (Alismataceae).

In protogynous plants, female flowers of early blooming plants are at a reproductive disadvantage because they cannot set fruit due to the lack of available pollen. To study this phenomenon, gender expression of the monoecious herb Sagittaria trifolia was investigated over the entire flowering season in two field and two cultivated populations in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, China. In racemes of S.