We identified volatiles from the floral headspace of Yucca filamentosa using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and analyzed floral scent composition and variation among populations pollinated by different yucca moth species. Twenty-one scent compounds were repeatedly identified and most could be categorized into two major classes: (1) homoterpenes derived from the sesquiterpene alcohol n...

The vast diversity of floral colours in many flowering plant families, paired with the observation of preferences among pollinators, suggests that floral colour may be involved in the process of speciation in flowering plants. While transitions in floral colour have been examined in numerous genera, we have very little information on the consequences of floral colour transitions to the evolutio...

The repeated origin of similar phenotypes is invaluable for studying the underlying genetics of adaptive traits; molecular evidence, however, is lacking for most examples of such similarity. The floral morphology of neotropical Malpighiaceae is distinctive and highly conserved, especially with regard to symmetry, and is thought to result from specialization on oil-bee pollinators. We recently d...

a range of some iranian monofloral honeys were assayed for antibacterial activity with and without hydrogen peroxide which is inactivated by the addition of catalase. i t was found that the high amount of antibacterial activity in honeys was due to a factor other than hydrogen peroxide. the test microorganism staphylococcus aureus, was not inhibited by the acidity or the osmolarity of the honey...

In spite of the different morphologies of sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels, all these floral organs are believed to be modified versions of a ground-state organ similar to the leaf. Modifications of the ground-state developmental programme are orchestrated by different combinations of MADS-domain transcription factors encoded by floral organ identity genes. In recent years, much has been re...

Autumn-seeded winter cereals acquire tolerance to freezing temperatures and become vernalized by exposure to low temperature (LT). The level of accumulated LT tolerance depends on the cold acclimation rate and factors controlling timing of floral transition at the shoot apical meristem. In this study, genomic loci controlling the floral transition time were mapped in a winter wheat (T. aestivum...

Evolutionary theory explains phenotypic change as the result of natural selection, with constraint limiting the direction, magnitude, and rate of response [1]. Constraint is particularly likely to govern evolutionary change when a trait is at perceived upper or lower limits. Macroevolutionary rates of floral-size change are unknown for any angiosperm family, but it is predicted that rates shoul...