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HORMONES. “Similar to animal hormones, small endogenous signaling molecules coordinate developmental and physiological processes in plants. As with their animal counterparts, plant hormones act at low concentrations and are often not synthesized where they act.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286740900258X View in LinkedIn

GERM CELL SET-ASIDES. “Imagine a textbook entitled Developmental Biology that focuses entirely on plants, mentioning animals only for their peculiar way of making germ cells by setting aside a group of precursor cells early in the embryo. The converse has been, and still is, common practice.” http://ac.els-cdn.com/0092867495900659/1-s2.0-0092867495900659-main.pdf?_tid=4d4ebb00-9318-11e7-86e1-00000aacb362&acdnat=1504712004_432302d5e397300b77a7d0a78440aca5 View in LinkedIn

BEHAVIOR VERSUS DEVELOPMENT. “Plants and animals have different solutions to the problem of survival in ever-changing and often adverse environments. Whereas animals focus mainly on behavioral responses, such as fighting or running away, plants have a remarkable repertoire of developmental tricks to shape their body and optimize their metabolism to specific environmental demands. This developmental flexibility involves permanent stem cell populations called meristems, de novo organogenesis, a remarkable capacity for regeneration, and directional growth responses to external cues.” https://lnkd.in/gJZZCq8 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend musing on the differences between animals and plants. Plants are distinguished from animals in a number of ways, but in particular, that where the individual starts and finishes in plants is far from clear. Plants have a distributed body plan that continues to develop during the entire life of the plant. View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETIC SIGNALS. “Flowering plant development is wholly reliant on growth from meristems, which contain totipotent cells that give rise to all post-embryonic organs in the plant. Plants are uniquely able to alter their development throughout their lifespan through the generation of new organs in response to external signals.” https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-3-12 View in LinkedIn

Honey tests reveal global contamination by bee-harming pesticides https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/05/honey-tests-reveal-global-contamination-by-bee-harming-pesticides?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn

PLANTS. "Most mating-type loci have no such asymmetry, all alleles generally being heterozygous in the diploid parts of the life cycle; in plants with the distylous form of heterostyly, however, one incompatibility type is heterozygous while the other is homozygous, similarly to sex chromosomes." http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v95/n2/full/6800697a.html View in LinkedIn

FACTOID. "In diploid species one sex chromosome (the X or Z) is regularly present in two copies in one sex and undergoes crossing over, whereas the sex-specific chromosome or region is always heterozygous and nonrecombining." http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v95/n2/full/6800697a.html View in LinkedIn

TRANSPOSON ACCUMULATION. "These haploid systems support the conclusion above that lack of recombination is sufficient for gene loss and transposable element accumulation. Plant self-incompatibility loci may be similar, although the sizes of nonrecombining regions, and even their existence, are not yet established." http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v95/n2/full/6800697a.html View in LinkedIn

The eco guide to disposing of litter https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/08/the-eco-guide-to-disposing-of-litter?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn