The seed exomorphic characteristics of four taxa (Cardamine graeca, C. impatiens subsp. impatiens, raphanifolia and uliginosa) belonging to Cardamine were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This study presents characteristics, including colour, shape, winged, measures, coat pattern. Four patterns observed; regularly reticulate, irregularly-reticulate, blister tuberculate-reti...

Plants have two principal defense mechanisms to decrease fitness losses to herbivory: tolerance, the ability to compensate fitness after damage, and resistance, the ability to avoid damage. Variation in intensity of herbivory among populations should result in variation in plant defense levels if tolerance and resistance are associated with costs. Yet little is known about how levels of toleran...

GWAS in out-crossing perennial crops is typically limited by insufficient marker density to account for population diversity and effects of population structure resulting in high false positive rates. The perennial crop oil palm is the most productive oil crop. We performed GWAS for oil-to-dry-mesocarp content (O/DM) on 2,045 genotyped tenera palms using 200K SNPs that were selected based on th...

Laver, a red algae belonging to the genus Porphyra, is one of the most widely consumed edible seaweeds. The most popular commercial dried laver species, P. tenera and P. haitanensis, were collected from Korea and China, respectively, and evaluated for proximate composition, amino acids, minerals, trace heavy metals, and color. The moisture and ash contents of P. tenera and P. haitanensis ranged...

Leaf morphology is one of the most variable, yet inheritable, traits in the plant kingdom. How plants develop a variety of forms and shapes is a major biological question. Here, we discuss some recent progress in understanding the development of compound or dissected leaves in model species, such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), Cardamine hirsuta and Medicago truncatula, with an emphasis on re...

The preference-performance hypothesis predicts that female insects maximize their fitness by utilizing host plants which are associated with high larval performance. Still, studies with several insect species have failed to find a positive correlation between oviposition preference and larval performance. In the present study, we experimentally investigated the relationship between oviposition ...

Species evolution depends on numerous and distinct forces, including demography and natural selection. For example, local adaptation and population structure affect the evolutionary history of species living along environmental clines. This is particularly relevant in plants, which are often characterized by limited dispersal ability and the need to respond to abiotic and biotic stress factors ...