Through multifaceted genome-scale research involving phylogenomics, targeted gene surveys, and gene expression analyses in diverse basal lineages of angiosperms, our studies provide insights into the most recent common ancestor of all extant flowering plants. MADS-box gene duplications have played an important role in the origin and diversification of angiosperms. Furthermore, early angiosperms...

BACKGROUND Understanding the mode and mechanisms of the evolution of the angiosperm flower is a long-standing and central problem of evolutionary biology and botany. It has essentially remained unsolved, however. In contrast, considerable progress has recently been made in our understanding of the genetic basis of flower development in some extant model species. The knowledge that accumulated t...

The debate on the origin and evolution of flowers has recently entered the field of developmental genetics, with focus on the design of the ancestral floral regulatory program. Flowers can differ dramatically among angiosperm lineages, but in general, male and female reproductive organs surrounded by a sterile perianth of sepals and petals constitute the basic floral structure. However, the bas...

1. The use of floral resource subsidies to improve herbivore suppression by parasitoids requires certain trophic interactions and physiological changes to occur. While the longevity and fecundity of parasitoids are positively affected by nectar subsidies in laboratory studies, the impacts of floral subsidies on the fecundity and longevity of freely foraging parasitoids have not been studied. 2....

Diversifying agroecosystems with floral habitats has the potential to conserve natural enemies and enhance pest control. In the laboratory, many adult parasitoids readily utilize nectar sources that have substantially increased their longevity and parasitism rates. However, in the field, does the floral habitat retain parasitoids locally so they exert greater control on pests? We studied the po...

Floral resource quantity in agricultural landscapes plays a key role the persistence of wild pollinators. An equally important, but less investigated factor is how variation floral availability over time, e.g. pulses, affects pollinator abundances and diversity. Despite potential importance late-season pulses for bumblebee reproduction, few studies have evaluated effects mass-flowering crops on...

Plants with floral resources are advocated to enhance natural enemy density and efficacy in conservation biological control systems. Field experiments were conducted examine the ability of partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) planted along two borders organic field corn (Zea mays) plots attract enemies control, yield profit. Partridge significantly increased abundances, including parasitoid...

There is a great need to implement low-cost and user-friendly methods for further propagation of biogas technology in India. Environment unfriendly disposal of floral waste causes serious environmental pollution. Literature shows a limited research work regarding the anaerobic digestion of floral waste for biogas generation.  The present experimental work aims to propagate floral waste as a sus...

The development and coordination of complex tissues in eukaryotes requires precise spatial control of fate-specifying genes. Although investigations of such control have traditionally focused on mechanisms of transcriptional activation, transcriptional repression has emerged as being equally important in the establishment of gene expression territories. In the angiosperm flower, specification o...