The differential accumulation and elimination of repetitive DNA are key drivers of genome size variation in flowering plants, yet there have been few studies which have analysed how different types of repeats in related species contribute to genome size evolution within a phylogenetic context. This question is addressed here by conducting large-scale comparative analysis of repeats in 23 specie...

Many specialist herbivores eat foods that are apparently low quality. The compensatory benefits of a poor diet may include protection from natural enemies. Several bee lineages specialize on pollen of the plant family Asteraceae, which is known to be a poor-quality food. Here we tested the hypothesis that specialization on Asteraceae pollen protects bees from parasitism. We compared rates of br...

background: more than 60 species of the genus lathyrus are distributed in southwest asia. it is the second largest genus of the tribe fabeae, after vicia, in the region (and in iran with 23 species). in the regional flora (flora of turkey, florairanicaand flora of iran), the genus has been divided into 9-10 sections. here we analyzed the phylogeny of lathyrus and its relationship with pisum bas...

Conserved gene clusters in the scrambled plastomes of IRLC legumes (Fabaceae: 1 Trifolieae and Fabeae). 2 3 Saemundur Sveinsson, Quentin Cronk 4 5 Faculty of Land and Animal Resources, Agricultural University of Iceland, Keldnaholt, 112 6 Reykjavik, Iceland;Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of 7 British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4, C...

Although pterocarpan phytoalexins commonly ac­ cumulate in the fungus-inoculated tissues of papilionate legumes, only three compounds of this type possess oxygenation at C-2 [1, 2]. They are 2,3,9-trimethoxypterocarpan (1), 2,9-dimethoxy-3-hydroxypterocarpan (2-methoxymedicarpin, 2) and 2,3,9-trimethoxy-4-hydroxypterocarpan (3) all of which co­ occur with pisatin in the Fusarium solani f. sp. p...

In most eukaryotes, centromere is determined by the presence of the centromere-specific histone variant CenH3. Two types of chromosome morphology are generally recognized with respect to centromere organization. Monocentric chromosomes possess a single CenH3-containing domain in primary constriction, whereas holocentric chromosomes lack the primary constriction and display dispersed distributio...

Larvae of 14 species and pupae of 12 species of Palaearctic Tychius Germar, 1817 are described for the first time. Larvae and pupae of T.meliloti Stephens, 1831, T. squamulatus Gyllenhal, 1835 and T. quinquepunctatus (Linnaeus, 1758), are redescribed with addition of new characters. They belong to 10 of 22 groups of species assembled through adult morphological characters in this region and, li...