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THE TRIPLE-WHAMMY SPECIAL. "A pinnacle of sexual deception is found in the demure Australian flying duck orchids (Paracaleana and Caleana). These use a triple-whammy pollination system involving a chemical cue and insectiform labellum combined with a touch-sensitive hinge on the labellum that catapults and momentarily holds the male insect against the pollination structures." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982208001723 View in LinkedIn

PERFUMED TOUCH. "In less ambiguous cases of sexual attraction, the flowers not only possess sex pheromone-like odors, but also morphological characteristics that mimic females of their pollinators, stimulating copulatory behavior of male insects. In repeated visits, pollen is transferred among flowers." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

WIDESPREAD WORLDWIDE. "At least 400 species of sexually deceptive orchids are known in several genera, including Ophrys in Europe, Disa in southern Africa, nine genera of Australian orchids, and several South American genera." http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/59/5/1085.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

SURROGATE PREFERENCE. "Male pollinators can prefer orchids to real females, prematurely end a copulation with a real female to visit an orchid, or be unable to find real female mates among false orchid signals. Crucially, pollinators would suffer significant costs if orchid deception causes pollinators to ejaculate and waste their sperm...which may indeed occur." https://lnkd.in/d_dvuWG View in LinkedIn

MAJOR IMPACT. "Pollinator-mediated selection has been suggested to play a major role for the origin and maintenance of the species diversity in orchids. Sexually deceptive orchids are one of the prime examples for rapid, pollinator-mediated plant radiations, with many species showing little genetic differentiation, lack of postzygotic barriers, but strong prezygotic reproductive isolation. These orchids mimic mating signals of female insects and employ male insects as pollinators." https://lnkd.in/dRg5ykK View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the final contemplation of the fabulous orchid family, and their elaborate and bizarre sexual deceptions of insect pollinators. Few creatures on this planet have gone to such lengths to achieve complicated reproductive strategies. Was this all about the conservation of nectar, an energetically expensive commodity? Other plants have managed that budget without a problem. The question is still unanswered. View in LinkedIn

MICRO-RNA (MiRNA) “also serve a crucial role in stem-cell research — they are the mechanism by which stem cells differentiate. Most cancers, we have recently learned, are marked by alterations in miRNA. Researchers even suspect that alterations in miRNA may be a cause of cancer.” http://wedcrew.yolasite.com/resources/Jelly%20fish.pdf View in LinkedIn

HIGH CUE VARIABILITY. "Deceptive orchids often show high variability in floral signals, which may be maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection, since pollinators can learn and subsequently avoid common deceptive morphs more quickly than rare ones. The evolution of obligate deception in orchids seems paradoxical in the light of the typically lower fruit set than in rewarding species." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-005-0636-y View in LinkedIn

CANCER CELLS ARE IMMORTAL. "What allows a cancer cell to keep diving endlessly, generation upon generation? Here’s an emerging answer: The human embryo and many of our adult organs possess a tiny population of stem cells that are capable of immortal regeneration. Stem cells are the body’s reservoir of renewal. The entirety of human blood, for instance, can arise from a single, highly potent blood-forming stem cell that typically lives buried inside the bone marrow." And many cancers arise from stem cells. https://lnkd.in/eNxs3pb View in LinkedIn

REFLECTED LIGHT CUES. "In some food deceptive orchids, similarities in the spectral reflectance visible to the pollinator in a model plant and its mimic, and increased reproductive success of the mimic in the presence of the model have been demonstrated." https://lnkd.in/dQxZZsA View in LinkedIn