Tag: Plant Reproduction

The onset of flowering is a tightly regulated process, as is the end of the reproductive phase in plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, FRUITFULL (FUL) contributes to ending the reproductive cycle, as do signals derived from developing seeds. Here, Martínez-Fernández et al. explored to which extent that…

Polyploidy, arising from whole-genome duplication, is a common phenomenon in plant species. However, newly formed polyploids are often infertile and the mechanism(s) by which they adapt to their new karyotypes remain unclear. In this article, Westermann and colleagues chemically induced the formation…

Asteraceae, also known as Compositae or the daisy family, is one of the largest plant families and comprises 10% of all flowering plants. Members of this family are found in habitats worldwide. The unique inflorescence, called a capitulum, is a key innovation of the family and contributes to its success.…

Humans and flowering plants spend most of their lives in a diploid state with two copies of each chromosome in most cells, but to reproduce they produce haploid gametes through meiosis. By contrast, bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses), spend most of their lives in the haploid state. They produce…

The Triticeae is an important tribe of crops that contains both barley and wheat. As the global population increases, the yield of Triticeae crops must increase to meet global food demands. An important factor influencing yield is grain number per spike, which is affected by inflorescence architecture.…

In angiosperms, pollen germination leads to a period of extensive polarized growth of the pollen tube, which carries the sperm nuclei to the ovule. Studies of tip growth in both pollen tubes and root hairs have contributed to a descriptive model that involves polarized vesicle movement along the cytoskeleton…

Microtubule binding proteins are important in determining fruit shape by driving changes in microtubule arrangement. However, in depth molecular studies on these in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) have been limited. Here, Bao et al. investigated the microtubule binding protein Microtubule-Associated Protein…

Recently, we highlighted a sexually deceptive daisy that mimics a female bee-fly to attract the male pollinators. In a recent preprint, Fattorini et al. take a closer look at the factors that specify the petal pigmentation pattern. The authors looked at three morphotypes with different spot patterns,…