Many varieties of wheat (Triticum spp.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) require prolonged exposure to cold during winter in order to flower (vernalization). In these cereals, vernalization-induced flowering is controlled by the VERNALIZATION1 (VRN1) gene. VRN1 is a promoter of flowering that is activated by low temperatures. VRN1 transcript levels increase graduallyduringvernalization,with long...

Higher plants exhibit a variety of different life histories. Annual plants live for less than a year and after flowering produce seeds and senesce. By contrast perennials live for many years, dividing their life cycle into episodes of vegetative growth and flowering. Environmental cues control key check points in both life histories. Genes controlling responses to these cues exhibit natural gen...

Parakeets usually forage for massive and ephemeral plant resources at forest canopies. Fruit pulp is widely cited as a major food resource for these birds, which often eat seeds and nectar. In this study, I assessed flower and fruit production at a gallery forest in the Pantanal flood plain (Brazil) in order to evaluate the relationship between food resource production and abundance of a common...

Rice false smut has become an increasingly serious disease in rice (Oryza sativa L.) production worldwide. The typical feature of this disease is that the fungal pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens (Uv) specifically infects rice flower and forms false smut ball, the ustiloxin-containing ball-like fungal colony, of which the size is usually several times larger than that of a mature rice seed. Howeve...

One of the most important environmental factors affecting flowering time is the daily duration of light, the photoperiod, which was first discovered by Garner and Allard in the 1920s (Thomas and Vince-Prue, 1997, and refs. therein). Plants in which flowering occurs or is accelerated in short days (SD) or long days (LD) are known as SD plants or LD plants, respectively. LD plants often flower in...

Arabidopsis APETALA2 (AP2) encodes a member of the AP2/EREBP (ethylene responsive element binding protein) class of transcription factors and is involved in the specification of floral organ identity, establishment of floral meristem identity, suppression of floral meristem indeterminancy, and development of the ovule and seed coat. Here, we show that loss-of-function ap2 mutations cause an inc...

Rangoon creeper (Quisqualis indica Linn.) is a plant of the family Combretaceae. In Thai traditional medicine, its seeds contain oil and quisqualic acid that act as anthelminthic. Its flowers are used against diarrhea and eaten as vegetable. The flower extract gave high total polyphenol contents and showed strong antioxidant activity. In the search for new acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from p...

Inflorescence effects have been poorly studied, in spite of the functional relevance of the inflorescence in fruit and seed ecology. The present study focused on the effects of inflorescence size and phenology, and flower position within the inflorescence, in relation to fruit and seed production of the Mediterranean shrub Ononis fruticosa. Variability in fruit and seed production, seed weight ...

Soybean (Glycine max Merr.) is the world's most widely grown legume and provides an important source of protein and oil. Global soybean production and yield per hectare increased steadily over the past century with improved agronomy and development of cultivars suited to a wide range of latitudes. In order to meet the needs of a growing world population without unsustainable expansion of the la...

Abstract Since the production of large and conspicuous flowers can be costly, self‐pollinated or asexually reproducing plants are expected to lose characters for pollinator attraction. However, some still produce despite not relying on pollinators fertilization, suggesting overlooked benefits receiving flower visitors. Here, we present visitor‐mediated microbial dispersal as a potential benefit...