BACKGROUND AND AIMS Serpentine soils provide a highly selective substrate for plant colonization and growth and represent an ideal system for studying the evolution of plant-ecotypes. In the present study the aim was to identify the genetic architecture of morphological traits distinguishing serpentine and non-serpentine ecotypes of Silene vulgaris. METHODS Using an F(2) mapping population de...

Several saffron ecotypes (Mashhad, Torbat-Jam, Torbat-Haydarieh, Gonabad, Birjand, Ghaen) were evaluated in Urmia for stigma yield and yield components using different maternal corm weights(6, 8, 10, 12 g) in 2013 cropping year. The experiment was arranged as factorial based on randomized complete block design. Analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among saffron ec...

1. The evolution of increased competitive ability (EICA) hypothesis proposes that exotic plants often become invasive because they have evolved reduced allocation to defence and increased allocation to growth and reproduction in response to low herbivore loads. Previous studies with Chinese tallow tree Sapium sebiferum support EICA predictions of invasive North American ecotypes displaying rapi...

Despite a very complex structure, the sugar composition of the rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II) pectic fraction is extremely conserved. Among its constituting monosaccharides is the seldom-observed eight-carbon sugar 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo), whose phosphorylated precursor is synthesized by Kdo-8-P synthase. As an attempt to alter specifically the RG-II structure in its sugar composi...

Bacterial populations can evolve and adapt to become diverse niche specialists, even in seemingly homogeneous environments. One source of this diversity arises from newly 'constructed' niches that result from the activities of the bacteria themselves. Ecotypes specialized to exploit these distinct niches can subsequently coexist via frequency-dependent interactions. Here, we describe a novel fo...

Understanding the emergence of species through the process of ecological speciation is a central question in evolutionary biology which also has implications for conservation and management. Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is renowned for the occurrence of different ecotypes linked to resource and habitat use throughout North America. We aimed to unravel the fine genetic structure of the four...

Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder and Sands (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a successful biological control agent of aquatic weeds suppressing species like giant salvinia, Salvinia molesta D.Mitch. (Salviniales: Salviniaceae), in at least 15 countries over 3 continents (Julien et al. 2002). There are at least 2 ecotypes of this insect; the smaller Florida ecotype found on common salvinia, S. minima B...

in order to study the effects of fall planting dates on yield and yield components of six cumin (cuminum cyminum l.) ecotypes an experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design as a split-plot with three replications during 2007-08 growing season at the agricultural research station of ferdowsi university of mashhad. three planting dates (18 oct. (first), 8 nov. (second) and 29 de...