Month: September 2022

“DOUBLE FERTILIZATION would have been present in the ancestor of the angiosperms as in extant groups, leading to the production of an embryo and a bi-parental endosperm. However, this endosperm was most probably diploid, rather than triploid as in later-diverging groups.” https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/57/10/2143/471376/An-evolutionary-perspective-on-the-regulation-of View in LinkedIn

NUMEROUS ORIGINS. “More than 80% of the angiosperm species are syncarpic: their carpels are fused into a single female structure in the centre of the flower and this trait has probably arisen over 20 times independently in the angiosperms.” https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

SINGLE FEMALE STRUCTURES. “Carpel fusion confers numerous advantages on syncarpic species, of which one of the most important is the provision of a compitum: a tissue that acts as an interchange between the entire stigmatic surface and the ovary, thus allowing any pollen tube to access any ovule.“ https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

SPERM COMPETITION. “Another potentially important advantage of syncarpy results from the enhanced competition that this produces between pollen tubes: an effect which may select for vigorous male parents.” https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

OTHER ADVANTAGES. “Syncarpy also allows for the production of larger fruits, with potentially more complex and efficient seed dispersal mechanisms. Finally, a syncarpic gynoecium may require a lesser energy input for cell wall production, compared to an apocarpic gynoecium of similar size.” https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

GOETHE’S FAMOUS INSIGHT. “Leaves and floral organs most likely have a common evolutionary origin, or as Goethe memorably put it: Alles ist Blatt (All is Leaf; von Goethe, 1790). https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

COMMON GENES. “An increasing amount of evidence suggests that the pathways regulating the basic morphological outline of ancestral leaf-like organs have been recruited to the developmental programmes of both leaves and floral organs, including the carpels, of present-day plants, although in the latter case, these have been slightly modified and positioned downstream of genes determining floral organ identity. For instance, mutations in genes affecting carpel morphogenesis also result in defects in the basic morphogenesis of the leaves.” https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn

FEMALE HOUSE. “Upon fertilisation, gynoecium and ovule developmental programmes are switched to those of fruit and seed development. In Arabidopsis, fruit development is characterised by a dramatic elongation of the ovary, concomitant with the differentiation of specific tissues along the carpel margins. Unfertilised gynoecia fail to elongate and develop seeds, and will eventually undergo senescence.” https://lnkd.in/dN-h-K2 View in LinkedIn