Infection of soybean plants with Soybean mosaic virus (SMV), which is transmitted by aphids and through seed, can cause significant reductions in seed production and quality. Because seedborne infections are the primary sources of inoculum for SMV infections in North America, host-plant resistance to seed transmission can limit the pool of plants that can serve as sources of inoculum. To examin...

Deserts are open environments characterized by striking shifts in temperature and light regimes. We hypothesized that the abiotic environment mediates the interaction between an ant-dispersed plant, Datura wrightii (Solanaceae), ant mutualists, and rodent seed predators in the Sonoran Desert. Field experiments contrasting diurnal and nocturnal seed collection rates in the presence of ants only,...

Fig. 3. Wrinkled, white, moldy-appearing seed infected by Phomopsis spp. More than 30 fungi are seed-borne on soybeans. Some, such as Phomopsis spp., the cause of pod and stem blight disease, can severely reduce seed viability (fi g. 1). Others cause quality problems, such as purple seed stain, caused by Cercospora kikuchii, but have less severe effects on viability. However, most fungi that ar...

Seed dispersal provides a template upon which the demographic processes of plant life cycles operate and, most importantly, seed dispersal determines the spatial distribution of genetic variation. Here, we review recent studies on seed dispersal by water (hydrochory) in species of Hibiscus to elucidate the potential ecological and evolutionary consequences of hydrochory at different spatiotempo...

Brassica crops have indeterminate growth and flower over an extended period of time. Harvested seed is therefore comprised of seed of varying degrees of physiological maturity and quality. Using population-based threshold models, broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. Group Italica), brussels sprouts (B. oleracea L. Group Gemmifera), red cabbage (B. oleracea L. Group Capitata), and rapeseed (B. napus L...

In Arabidopsis, rapid expansion of the coenocytic endosperm after fertilisation has been proposed to drive early seed growth, which is in turn constrained by the seed coat. This hypothesis implies physical heterogeneity between the endosperm and seed coat compartments during early seed development, which to date has not been demonstrated. Here, we combine tissue indentation with modelling to sh...

Factors that determine the effectiveness of primates as seed dispersers include (i) the microsite into which they deposit seed, (ii) secondary removal of seed by other taxa and (iii) the effect of gut passage and/or spitting on subsequent seed germination. This contribution evaluated these factors in the little studied putty-nosed monkey, Cercopithecus nictitans, in a Nigerian montane forest. F...

different layers of acorn (quercus infectoria), hull, seed coat and seed kernel were analyzed for determination of chemical composition. the results of the preliminary analysis showed that acorn contained more than 65% carbohydrates, 8% lipid and 10% tannin among other constituents. the fatty acid composition of the seed oil was determined using thin layer chromatography and comparing with ...

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1. Local plant community assembly is influenced by a series of filters that affect the recruitment and establishment of species. These filters include regional factors that limit seeds of any given species from reaching a local site as well as local interactions such as post-dispersal seed predation and disturbance, which dictate what species actually establish. How these filters interact to in...