Month: September 2022

'Space nation' Asgardia takes off http://www.cnn.com/style/article/asgardia-satellite-launch/index.html View in LinkedIn

EXAPTED GENES. "It is likely that sex determining genes may be present in the genomes of hermaphroditic plants, but may have quite different functions in some plants." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

GENE DOSAGE. "Although the notion that dioecy may be controlled by simple mutations affecting male or female functions may hold true for some simple plant systems, the situation is clearly more complicated in the case of those dioecious plants which have developed sex chromosomes of the X to autosome dosage type, where dosage sensing mechanisms involving genes analogous to the numerator and denominator genes found in drosophila have developed." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

OLD GENE, NEW FUNCTION. "One finding which may result from this work will be the way in which genomes have evolved to reassign genes (or duplicate copies of them) to new functions." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

ANGIOSPERM PATHWAYS. "About 6 % of an estimated total of 240 000 species of angiosperms are dioecious. The main precursors of this sexual system are thought to be monoecy and gynodioecy. A previous angiosperm-wide study revealed that many dioecious species have evolved through the monoecy pathway; some case studies and a large body of theoretical research also provide evidence in support of the gynodioecy pathway." https://lnkd.in/guzeMTD View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS OF DIOECY. "Dioecy is thought to have evolved independently many times. These transitions may have been favoured by the advantage of avoiding self-pollination and the associated inbreeding depression, by the advantage of sexual specialization or by a combination of both." https://lnkd.in/guzeMTD View in LinkedIn

MULTIPLE EVENTS. Dioecy "is reported in close to half of all angiosperm families and may have originated on at least 100 occasions from hermaphroditic ancestors." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

SPECTRAL. "The origin of separate sexes is commonly associated with the evolution of sexual dimorphism, and this has occurred to varying degrees in many dioecious plants." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM. “The phenomenon of sexual dimorphism is a direct product of evolution by natural selection, in that the struggle for reproductive success drives many male and female organisms down different evolutionary paths...at a biological level, the reproductive success of an organism is often more important than its long-term survival.” https://lnkd.in/gnW5-pQ View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the theme of viral dark matter. We have virtually no grasp on the diversity or roles of viruses. When you consider that viruses are typically hybrid swarms of semispecies, reverting to Victorian classification systems might appear quaint at best. These little creatures continue to make fools of us humans. https://lnkd.in/gc5arxt View in LinkedIn