in vitro pollen germination and also pollen tube growth dynamics in different pollination treatments under controlled temperature, humidity and photoperiodicity were studied regarding four cultivars (‘shastomi - e - do’, ‘ebrahim - e - kalajah’, ‘sefid - e - rezaeeieh’ and ‘razi’) under self and under cross-pollination along with three superior genotypes (‘269’, ‘416’ and ‘464’) of apricot. fol...

Abstract Orchidaceae, one of the most numerous families in world's flora, have evolved various pollination strategies to favour cross-pollination, such as deceptive and pollinarium reconfiguration. Among terrestrial orchids Mediterranean, only species belonging genus Serapias show a strategy defined shelter imitation. The floral elements form tubular structure that insects use during their rest...

Charles Darwin studied floral biology for over 40 years and wrote three major books on plant reproduction. These works have provided the conceptual foundation for understanding floral adaptations that promote cross-fertilization and the mechanisms responsible for evolutionary transitions in reproductive systems. Many of Darwin's insights, gained from careful observations and experiments on dive...

Pollination systems are composed of flowering plants and flower visitors, engaging into mutualistic interactions. However, the flower visitors include true pollinators, which pollinate the flower by visiting it through the legitimate way, and also by cheaters, which use the flower′s resources (e.g. nectar and pollen) without pollinating it or been just marginally efficient on pollination. On th...

Self-incompatibility (SI) is one of the important factors that can result in seedless fruit in Citrus. However, the molecular mechanism of SI in Citrus is not yet clear. In this study, two suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries (forward, F and reverse, R) were constructed to isolate differentially expressed genes in pollen from "Wuzishatangju" (SI) and "Shatangju" (self-compatibi...

Explaining the diversity of mating systems and floral forms in flowering plants is a long-standing concern of evolutionary biologists. One topic of interest is the conditions under which self-pollination can interfere with seed set for flowering plants with a self-incompatibility system. We investigated the effect of self-pollen interference for wild radish, Raphanus raphanistrum, which has spo...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis (Cucurbitaceae) is cultivated in many African regions for its edible kernels used as a soup thickener. The plant, an annual, andromonoecious, trailing-vine species, is of high social, cultural and economic value for local communities. In order to improve the yield of this crop, the first step and our aim were to elucidate its breeding system. M...

Abstract Pollination of deceptive orchids has enabled scientists to understand how these species avoid inbreeding depression by reducing the number pollinator visits per inflorescence. In rewarding species, which receive a higher rate plant, geitonogamy is usually and therefore risk increases. this study, we assess breeding system orchid A. coriophora, spatio-temporal changes in its fitness as ...