Innovative floral organs are widely distributed taxonomically in angiosperms, and some of them are conspicuous and curious in morphology. Floral organs have long been supposed to play a crucial role in fertilization by pollinators. However, why innovative organs occur, how they are adapted for pollinators and what sexual roles they play are still puzzling. Here we focused on a wild ginger (Zing...

Molecular markers were used for assessing genetic diversity in Finnish six-rowed barley and for mapping and tagging genes affecting traits important in barley breeding. Finnish six-rowed barley germplasm is narrow-based: twenty two released varieties are largely composed of only seven ancestors. The level of diversity in the RAPD markers has remained during barley breeding. Coancestry based on ...

Doubled haploids (DH) have become a powerful tool to assist in different basic research studies, and also applied research. The principal (but not the only) routine use of DH by breeding companies is produce pure lines for hybrid seed production crop species. Several decades after discovery haploid inducer maize anther culture as method plants from pollen precursors, biotechnological revolution...

Studies of the anther transcriptome on non-model plants without a known genome are surprisingly scarce. RNA-Seq and digital gene expression (DGE) profiling provides a comprehensive approach to identify candidate genes contributing to developmental processes in non-model species. Here we built a transcriptome library of developing anthers of Hamelia patens and analyzed DGE profiles from each sta...

In flowering plants, mature sperm cells are enclosed in pollen grains formed in structures called anthers. Several cell layers surrounding the central sporogenous cells of the anther are essential for directing the developmental processes that lead to meiosis, pollen formation, and the subsequent pollen release. The specification and function of these tissues are regulated by a large number of ...