Plants, plasmids and possibilities -- Methods permit functional gene studies in plants
...ect Arabidopsis plants: dipping an Arabidopsis flower directly into a solution containing Agrobacterium , mechanically forcing the Agrobacterium into the plant cells by applying vacuum, and simply spraying an Agrobacterium suspension onto the plants....University of Alberta researchers discover hummingbird secret
...ill as it feeds itself while darting in and out of flower blossoms with pinpoint accuracy. The bird must be able to maintain a stable position space, despite the fact that their wings are beating 75 times per second and that disruptive effects such as wind gusts could throw them off. Much work has been d...Researchers find that bumblebees' flower choice matters
...uses several innovative methods of tracking monkey flower mating, and all hinge on where the pollen comes fr...ough cross-pollination when pollen deposited on a flower is brought from a different plant of the same species, either from one pollen donor or many. When po...How did bilaterally symmetric flowers evolve from radially symmetric ones?
...versidad de Granada, Spain) explored how different flower shapes affected plant fitness in natural populatio... selection can play a key role in the evolution of flower bilateral symmetry," says Camacho. "Our data also suggest that it is possible to understand the evol...Wild bees make honeybees better pollinators
...are sterile females, causing them to move from one flower to another. Secondly, female wild bees appear to "dive bomb" honeybees, forcing them to move. Frequent movement between flowers spreads pollen around more effectively. Greenleaf and her co-author Claire Kremen, now a professor at UC Berkeley, calcul...Red is for hummingbirds, yellow for moths
...owered form." "The striking geographic pattern of flower color--where we never see a red-flowered plant in the east or a yellow-flowered plant along the coast--speaks wonders of the power of natural selection to maintain these differences," said Streisfeld....After insects attack, plants bunker sugars for later regrowth
... to be used later to extend the period of seed and flower production when the plant is done growing. As soon as the plants are attacked by the larvae of the nicotine-resistant tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, elicitors from this herbivore TM s mouth (called FACs - fatty acid conjugates), which also tune the...Global changes alter plant growth schedule
...ate balance. "Under today's conditions, grasses flower early in the growing season and wildflowers flower later, but when we increased the concentration of carbon dioxide to mirror conditions 50 years from ...Global changes alter the timing of plant growth, scientists say
...through 2003. "Under today's conditions, grasses flower early in the growing season and wildflowers flower later, but when we increased the concentration of carbon dioxide to simulate future conditions, the ...When the going gets tough, slime molds start synthesizing
... and stilbenes for use as sunscreens, antibiotics, flower pigments, and anti-oxidants. Explains Austin, "Plant polyketides are also increasingly recognized to have significant benefits in the human diet as health-promoting components of green tea, red wine, and soybeans." Turns out, DIF-1 belongs to the s...Genetic snooze button governs timing of spring flowers
...tering the first year. The second year, the plants flower in the spring and die back in the fall. That bie...the fall, but you need to make darn sure you don't flower in the fall," Amasino says. In the case of biennials, "the plants can somehow measure how much cold ...Scientists map the flight of the bumblebee
...gth of a bumblee's tongue influences the choice of flower species it feeds on - some long-tongued bumblebees are close to extinction in the UK (Bombus terrestris, the focus of this study, is short-tongued). Bumblebees leave chemical 'post-it' notes on flowers they have just visited to tell others they h...Wild bees and the flowers they pollinate are disappearing together
...s are similar, and capable of pollinating the same flower species. However, this is not the case. The resear...ferent; insects which pollinate a limited range of flower species or which have specialised habitat needs were most often lost. Overall, a small number of com...Discovery may speed forest biotechnology
...uld be possible to genetically engineer trees that flower and reproduce more quickly. The long, slow growth ...ng approaches common with short-lived species that flower rapidly, such as corn and wheat, have been too slow to be practical." A remaining obstacle, Strauss ...Massive duplication of genes may solve Darwin's 'abominable mystery' about flowering plants
...ily of transcription factors that are required for flower development, are known to have undergone an expansion through duplication that was critical to the evolution of angiosperm flowers. A whole-genome duplication explains the sudden emergence of novel traits better than a series of single-gene duplicat...Important gene controlling tree growth and development found
...elp of this gene poplar trees can be stimulated to flower after a few weeks instead of after the normal 10-...g plants known many trees do not form their first flower until they are 10-20 years old, sometimes even older! Trees also have the ability to cycle between g...Scientists discover that ancient genes dictate flowering, fall bud set
...res many years of growth before a tree is ready to flower -- a delay that makes tree breeders impatient. Now...ed, also have CO and FT genes and can be forced to flower in months, rather than years. The discovery is being reported in Science magazine on-line (Science E...Natural selection at single gene demonstrated
...peared thousands of years ago enabled the plant to flower year-round, helping it out-compete other plants. Toomajian and his group showed that these two versions, also called gene variants, are too common to have spread solely by chance. "We've shown that for one gene with an important role in that [floweri...With a sense of timing, hummingbirds know when they've last emptied a flower
...ach of which is started by a visit to a particular flower and is reset when the bird next empties that flower. The work shows that animals in the real world are capable of more impressive timing feats than have been previously considered. The findings also suggest that animals may be capable of planning th...... of anthuriums, a plant known for its heart-shaped flower and leaves, say plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS). Anthuriums's flower portion, or spathe, is available in a variety of colors including brilliant shades of red, orange, p...