BACKGROUND AND AIMS Early observations that genome size was positively correlated with cell size formed the basis of hypothesized consequences of genome size variation at higher phenotypic scales. This scaling was supported by several studies showing a positive relationship between genome size and seed mass, and various metrics of growth and leaf morphology. However, many of these studies were ...

MADS-box genes in plants control various aspects of development and reproductive processes including flower formation. To obtain some insight into the roles of these genes in morphological evolution, we investigated the origin and diversification of floral MADS-box genes by conducting molecular evolutionary genetics analyses. Our results suggest that the most recent common ancestor of today's f...

Flowers, the reproductive structures of the approximately 400 000 extant species of flowering plants, exist in a tremendous range of forms and sizes, mainly due to developmental differences involving the number, arrangement, size and form of the floral organs of which they consist. However, this tremendous diversity is underpinned by a surprisingly robust basic floral structure in which a centr...

New Caledonia is a global biodiversity hotspot facing extreme environmental degradation. Given the urgent need for conservation prioritisation, we have made a first-pass quantitative assessment of the distribution of Narrow Endemic Species (NES) in the flora to identify species and sites that are potentially important for conservation action. We assessed the distributional status of all angiosp...

The flowering plants that dominate modern vegetation possess leaf gas exchange potentials that far exceed those of all other living or extinct plants. The great divide in maximal ability to exchange CO(2) for water between leaves of nonangiosperms and angiosperms forms the mechanistic foundation for speculation about how angiosperms drove sweeping ecological and biogeochemical change during the...

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian-Triassic boundary extinction by about 500...

Gnetum africanum (eru or African Jointfir) is a vine gymnosperm species found natively throughout tropical Africa.[1] Though bearing leaves, the genus Gnetum are gymnosperms, related to pine and other conifers.[2][3][4] Eru has numerous common names and is grown in various countries across Africa, including: Cameroon (Eru, okok, m’fumbua, or fumbua), Angola (KoKo), Nigeria (ukase or afang), Gab...

A cDNA for a novel plant protein was isolated from tomato. Nuclear Matrix Protein 1 (NMP1) is a ubiquitously expressed 36 kDa protein, which has no homologues in animals and fungi, but is highly conserved among flowering and non-flowering plants, including gymnosperms, moss, and the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. NMP1 is predominantly alpha-helical with multiple stretches of short amphipathic...

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...