Flowers of different plant species show distinct and highly diverse patterns of temperature across their surfaces, and bumblebees are able to differentiate between these previously unnoticed but widespread floral cues.
Research in molecular ecology and evolution is increasingly utilizing the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, placing a spotlight on its natural history.
The mosses and angiosperms have independently evolved mechanisms that use the same hormones-auxin, cytokinin and strigolactone-to regulate lateral shoot branching.
The system that controls gene expression by the plant signaling molecule auxin has deep evolutionary roots, and stepwise increases in system complexity shaped the highly diverse auxin response in land plants.
Models of plant behaviour show that flowering early in a warming world is an adaptive strategy to insulate progeny seed behaviour from the affects of climate change.
CYP734A50 is a heterostyly gene from primroses that underlies the differences in style length between the two forms by degrading growth-promoting hormones in the short styles.
Ectopic expression of Symbiosis Receptor-like Kinase (SYMRK) in roots of the legume Lotus japonicus resulted in spontaneous activation of nodule organogenesis and mycorrhiza-related gene expression in the absence of microbial symbionts or signalling molecules.
Hybridization barriers in Arabidopsis thaliana can be established by paternally expressed imprinted genes (PEGs) that affect cellularization of the endosperm during seed development.
Metabolic exaptation of an anaplerotic nitrogen cycle between bundle sheath and mesophyll cells may explain the remarkably frequent convergent evolution of C4 photosynthesis.
