The phytohormone ethylene is essential for senescence in many fruits and flowers. In the biosynthesis of ethylene in plants, the conversion of S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) to 1-aminocyclopropane1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and the conversion of ACC to ethylene are catalyzed by ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO), respectively (Adams and Yang, 1979). Using a cDNA clone representing carnation ACO ...

Understanding the evolution of sex determination in plants requires identifying the mechanisms underlying the transition from monoecious plants, where male and female flowers coexist, to unisexual individuals found in dioecious species. We show that in melon and cucumber, the androecy gene controls female flower development and encodes a limiting enzyme of ethylene biosynthesis, ACS11. ACS11 is...

Climate change is causing many plants to flower earlier in spring, exposing them to novel selection pressures, including-potentially-pollinator shortages. Over 2 years that contrasted in timing of flowering onset, we studied reproductive strategies, pollen limitation, and selection on flowering time in Mertensia fusiformis, a self-incompatible, spring-flowering perennial. Plants opened most of ...

Objective: There has been a growing interest in finding plants with biological active ingredients for medicinal application. Materials and Methods: Three colors of petals of Althaea officinalis (A. officinalis) flowers, i.e., pink, reddish pink, and white were examined for total antioxidant activity and flavonoids content. Results: The reddish pink flowers of A. officinalis have more antioxidant...

Isolation of a recessive aco (androcarpel organ) mutation in opium poppy Papaver somniferum, is described. The aco (aco aco) mutant plants form androcarpels in place of inner whorl stamens in their flowers. The abnormal flowers are self-fertile, as stamens in the outer whorl are normal. In aco mutant the calyx, corolla and syncarpous gynoecium are formed like in the wild type ACO plants. The an...

Commercially available amino acids mixtures have several advantages such as enhancing assimilation of fertilizer, facilitating uptake of water and nutrients and improving photosynthesis of plants. To investigate the response of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonni L.) flowers ‘Saltino’ to foliar application of a mixture of 19 essential amino acids (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mg L-1) and ammonium nitrate (200 mg...

A main tenet of sex-allocation theory is that environmental stress should lead to increased maleness because reproducing through pollen is generally cheaper than producing fruits and seeds. Though this prediction has held for many species, it has been little tested for gynomonoecious plants, in which individuals produce both female and perfect flowers. We exposed eight ramets of each of 22 gene...

3 Corresponding author: [email protected] ABSTRACT: We compared the native bees visiting the flowers of three species of invasive plants, saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) and white and yellow sweet clover (Melilotus albus, M. officinalis), with those visiting seven concurrently blooming native plant species in mid-summer at three sites in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Overall, as many total s...