Month: September 2022

FEW CONTROLLING GENES. "Floral traits are sometimes controlled by a relatively small number of genes. For example, in the common morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea), various aspects of pigmentation are controlled by single loci: one locus determines pink versus blue flowers, another controls intensity, a third controls the patterning and degree of pigmentation, and a fourth locus has epistatic effects on the other three loci." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

LOCI TESTING. "Pollinator selection for specific loci has been tested in various contexts. For example, red flowers are relatively poorly detected by insect pollinators that lack red receptors, whereas hummingbirds have such receptors and can thus detect and identify red flowers more easily. In cases in which flower color is controlled by a small number of loci, crossing experiments can directly assess pollinator responses to a specific allele." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

SINGLE VERSUS MULTI-LOCUS TRAITS. "Although many floral traits are controlled by a single locus, many more are multi-locus traits. Some floral scent cues that influence pollinators may be affected by a relatively small number of genetic loci, detected by screening for QTLs." (QTL = quantitative trait loci). https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

TRANSITIONS. "QTLs can, of course, correspond with large genetic intervals containing tens or even hundreds of genes, and so it is important to pinpoint the exact genes (and their number) to understand the ease with which an evolutionary transition between, for example, a scented and a scentless flower type can occur." (QTLs = quantitative trait loci). https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETIC FACTORS. "Many traits show continuous phenotypic distributions and environmental interactions, with examples in the shape and size of petals, corolla tubes, stamens and pistils, as well as placement and arrangement of anthers and stamens, nectar volume, and the number of ovules and pollen grains." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

THE SMALL FROM THE MANY. "Frequently, traits are controlled not by a single or a few genes, but by multiple genes across the genome, each with small effects." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends focused on plant-pollinator interactions. The massive contributions to this field of genetic analyses were not available when Darwin first probed these relationships. And the data continues to pour in today. It is a beautiful case study of where two species, or more, evolve in parallel by co-evolution, the one affecting the other. View in LinkedIn

MALLEABLE MEMORIES. “Roberto Malinow, professor of neurosciences, said: ‘We can form a memory, erase that memory and we can reactivate it, at will, by applying a stimulus that selectively strengthens or weakens synaptic connections.” https://lnkd.in/dubvDXy View in LinkedIn

MALLEABLE FEAR. “We can cause an animal to have fear and then not have fear and then to have fear again by stimulating the nerves at frequencies that strengthen or weaken the synapses.” http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/how_to_erase_a_memory_and_restore_it View in LinkedIn