Plants use many means to attract pollinators, including visual cues and odor. We investigated how nonpigment floral chemistry influences nectar removal, floral visitation, florivory, rates of outcrossing, and fitness through both male and female functions. We blocked expression of biosynthetic genes of the dominant floral attractant [benzyl acetone (Nachal1)] and nectar repellent [nicotine (Nap...

FIVE TEST ORGANISMS WERE USED: Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhosa, Salmonella schottmuelleri, Salmonella enteritidis, and Shigella paradysenteriae. Even when large inocula of these test cultures were introduced into fresh passionfruit nectar base, all test organisms were killed within 1 to 2 hr, provided the nectar base was held at room temperature for more than 1 hr before freezing. If the n...

In recent years Petunia has become a promising model system for studying the genetics and evolution of pollination syndromes. Here we provide a brief introduction to the issue of pollination syndromes, explain why Petunia is a suitable model for its study, present useful background information about pollinators and plants, review recent studies, and discuss questions related to the genetics and...

There has been recent interest in the threat to bees posed by the use of systemic insecticides. One concern is that systemic insecticides may translocate from the soil into pollen and nectar of plants, where they would be ingested by pollinators. This paper reports on the movement of two such systemic neonicotinoid insecticides, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, into the pollen and nectar of flowe...

Floral traits that correlate with nectar availability or are linked functionally to nectar production carry the potential to enable remote assessment of energy rewards by pollinators. Such floral traits can be considered "honest" in the sense that they convey information about the quality or profitability of a flower to a pollinator. Recently a new sensory channel used in plant-pollinator inter...

To date, no genes have been reported to directly affect the de novo production of floral nectar. In an effort to identify genes involved in nectar production, the Affymetrix((R)) ATH1 GeneChip was previously used to examine global gene expression profiles in Arabidopsis thaliana nectaries. One of the genes displaying highly enriched expression in nectaries was CELL WALL INVERTASE 4 (AtCWINV4, A...

Sparing zones from mowing has been proposed, and applied, to improve local conditions for survival and reproduction of insects in hay meadows. However, little is known about the efficiency of refuge zones and the consequences for local populations. We studied population densities of butterflies before and after mowing in the refuge zone of 15 meadows in 2009 and 2011. We also studied the behavi...