Many flowering plants rely on pollinators for their reproductive success. Plant-pollinator interactions usually depend on a complex combination of traits based on a fine-tuned biosynthetic machinery, with many structural and regulatory genes involved. Yet, the physiological mechanisms in plants are the product of evolutionary processes. While evolution has been modifying flowers through millions of years, it is also a rapid process that can change plant traits within few generations. Here we discuss both mechanistic and evolutionary aspects of pollinator attraction. We also propose how latest advances in biotechnology and evolutionary studies, and their combination, will improve the elucidation of molecular mechanisms and evolutionary dynamics of pollinator attraction in changing environments.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2021.06.004 | DOI Listing |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2025
School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Department, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, England.
Electric fields in terrestrial environments are used by caterpillars to detect their predators, as foraging cues by pollinators, and facilitate ballooning by spiders. This study shows that electric fields facilitate transportation and detection of hummingbirds in a guild of tropical phoretic mites. Hummingbird flower mites feed on nectar and pollen and complete their life cycle inside flowers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Aujourdhui
January 2025
Sorbonne Université, Institut d'Écologie et des Sciences de l'Environnement de Paris, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France - Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
Insects and flowering plants are the most abundant and diverse multicellular organisms on Earth, accounting for 75% of known species. Their evolution has been largely interdependent since the so-called Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (100-50 Mya), when the explosion of plant diversity stimulated the evolution of pollinating and herbivorous insects. Plant-insect interactions rely heavily on chemical communication via volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Aujourdhui
January 2025
Institut d'Écologie et des Sciences de l'Environnement de Paris (iEES Paris), Paris, France - Sorbonne Université, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
The evolutionary success of angiosperms, which make up more than 95 percent of the world's terrestrial flora, is largely based on their interactions with animal pollinators. Indeed, it is estimated that, on average, 87.5 percent of flowering plants are pollinated by animals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Bot
January 2025
CEFE, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, CEDEX 5, 34293 Montpellier, France.
Background And Aims: The currently recognized diversity of pollination strategies requires pollination syndromes to be updated. Described a decade ago, kleptomyiophily is a deceptive pollination system in which plants exploit the nutrient-seeking behavior of females of kleptoparasitic flies (Chloropidae and Milichiidae) by olfactorily mimicking their insect host. Such a pollination system was already hypothesized for pollination by biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) but has never been formalized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Environ
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Economic Plants and Biotechnology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
Flower color is a crucial trait that attracts pollinators and determines the ornamental value of floral crops. Cymbidium lowianum, one of the most important breeding parent of Cymbidium hybrids, has two flower morphs (normal and albino) that differ in flower lip color. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying flower color formation in C.
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