Green on green Colourful flowers stand out between the greenery. There are, however, green flowers. Now Spanish and American researchers show in Annals of Botany that those do stand out, at least for bees and flies. ‘A green flower is not noticed, and is pollinated by wind.’ That was long the believe. But there areContinue reading “Green on green”
Category Archives: Paper highlight
Blushing flowers
Blushing flowers Some flowers shift colour after pollination. In this way they signal to pollinators here is nothing more to get. Now Chinese and American researches discovered which gene is regulating this in Lotus species. The flowers of Lotus japonicus and Lotus filicaulis are both yellow. Only one of those, L. filicaulis, colours a blushingContinue reading “Blushing flowers”
Extra protection
Extra protection To prevent that everything and everyone can just entre plant roots have an extra lignin layer to protect their vascular tissue. But lots of plants have in addition to this protecting ring another barrier. Now a group of international researchers show in Nature Plants how plants are regulating this barrier. Plant roots containContinue reading “Extra protection”
Organelle variation
Organelle variation Often we assume that genes responsible for phenotypic variation resides in the nuclear genome. Now a group of international researchers show in PNAS that also genes located in organelles are contributing to phenotypic variation. Organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts contain genetic material, remnants of ancient symbiotic ancestors. Genes essential for function of theContinue reading “Organelle variation”
Plant en Zo 