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FITNESS FUNCTION. "Interestingly, fusion of filaments alone is typically found in the early diverging angiosperms in flowers with many petals, while fusion events involving both anthers (connective) and filament are typically correlated with petal fusion, indicating that stamen fusion may have adaptive significance in flowers with tubular petals, increasing fitness through improved mechanisms of pollen reception or dispersal." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

"STAMEN FUSION, including fusion of filaments, fusion of anthers and fusion to the style, can be found in over 70 families of flowering plants occurring independently with differing mechanisms of fusion." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

FUSION EVOLUTION. "Unlike perianth fusion, which occurs early in angiosperm evolution and defines large clades, stamen fusion occurs multiple times independently and does not tend to define major angiosperm clades, although it is locally important for species-level diversification and is likely to have adaptive significance given the impact on mating patterns in plant populations." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues and concludes this weekend on the subject of floral fusions and their evolution and functions. These chimeric plant organs are driven by boundaries at a cellular and genetic level. Boundaries define the morphological transitions in flowers. Come and enjoy a deeper appreciation of the enormous diversity of flowers and how they got to be what they are, and speculate on where they may be headed. View in LinkedIn

BOUNDARIES. "In order for lateral primordia to distinguish themselves as a population of cells separate from the shoot apical meristem (SAM), a meristem-to-organ boundary must be created. Mutants lacking appropriate genetic mechanisms for separation of organ primordia into distinct lateral organs are considered to be mutants in the process of ‘boundary formation’." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

DEATH OF DE NOVO GENES. "The high rate of de novo gene birth in combination with a rather constant number of genes over time predicts that many of the de novo genes have only a short lifetime." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952515000347 View in LinkedIn

MULTIFACETED FUSIONS. "Fusion of organs is a multifaceted process that contributes in predictable ways to the diversity of floral form, providing opportunities for comparative analyses of adaptive floral development across angiosperms." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

DYNAMIC PROCESS. "While gene family evolution is pervasive, it may be especially important in our own evolution since it appears that the "revolving door" of gene duplication and loss has undergone multiple accelerations in the lineage leading to humans." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19153999 View in LinkedIn

LABILE FUSIONS. "Fusion tends to be more labile in the outermost perianth than in petals, a phenomenon that may predict different genetic mechanisms underlying organ separation. In some cases, developmental characters within a flower are highly correlated with fusion of particular tissues; for example, early fusion of petals is predominantly found in flowers with inferior ovaries and reduced sepal whorl(s)." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS OF TURNOVER. "One of the unique insights provided by the growing number of fully sequenced genomes is the pervasiveness of gene duplication and gene loss." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19153999 View in LinkedIn