Cycads are an important relic from the past and represent the oldest living seed plants. Cycads have been instrumental in our understanding the evolution of angiosperms and gymnosperms because they have recognizable morphological characteristics intermediate between less-recently evolved plants such as ferns and more-derived (advanced) plants including the angiosperms. Cycads also produce sever...

This study examined how forest edges, fruit display size, and fruit colour influenced rates of seed dispersal in an endemic, bird-dispersed, New Zealand mistletoe species, Alepis flavida. To examine rates of seed dispersal, fruit removal rates were compared between plants growing on forest edges and in forest interior, and also between two morphs of plants with different coloured fruits. Two as...

This paper describes work to determine whether soybean cultivars differ in their physiological response to applied abscisic acid. ABA is a naturally occurring plant hormone that affects a number of physiological processes, including leaf abscission, leaf senescence, seed germination, bud dormancy, flowering, and tuberization (4). Usually, ABA is applied in various concentrations to whole plants...

So, is it involved in abscission in plants? Well no, it doesn’t really have much to do with the separation of leaves, and so on, from the plant, but it does feature heavily in the regulation of seed development and the response of plants to environmental stresses such as drought. Perhaps its best-understood roles are in the promotion of seed dormancy and in reducing turgor in the guard cells th...

BACKGROUND Larval movement of target pest populations among Bt and non-Bt plants is a major concern in the use of a seed mixture refuge strategy for Bt resistance management. In this study, occurrence and larval movement of the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), were evaluated in four planting patterns of non-Bt and Bt plants containing Genuity® SmartStax(TM) traits in 2009-2011. The f...

Until recently, storage protein research has been largely restricted to the seed-specific reserve proteins, which provide nutrients to seedlings during their early growth. Their abundance, and the potential for improving seed nutritional quality, were early incentives to investigate seed storage proteins, and they continue to be intensively studied as a plant model for tissue-specific and devel...

Until recently, storage protein research has been largely restricted to the seed-specific reserve proteins, which provide nutrients to seedlings during their early growth. Their abundance, and the potential for improving seed nutritional quality, were early incentives to investigate seed storage proteins, and they continue to be intensively studied as a plant model for tissue-specific and devel...

The effects of increased sink-source ratios, induced by elevating night temperatures, on remobilization of (14)C-assimilates and N within field-grown soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) was investigated from preflowering to maturity. Raising the mean minimum night temperature for the entire growing season from 10 (check, uncontrolled) to 16 degrees C increased seed growth without appreciable effe...