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ONE GENE, MANY PHENOTYPES. "Many flower traits are subject to extensive pleiotropies; for example, pigments that contribute to flower coloration are also used in other parts of the plant where they can have multiple important functions." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

AVOIDING PREDATOR ATTRACTION. "A further challenge for plants is that some floral traits that are attractive to pollinators can also be of interest to herbivores, and in some cases, flowering plants may have the dual problem of attracting pollinators while deterring the same species in larval stages." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

POLLINATOR SELECTION. "Flower structures can be used to limit the type of visitor to some extent, but such limitation is typically not absolute. In addition, flowers can attempt to obtain some pollinator specificity by using advertising signals that appeal only to certain pollinators and not others. Colors, patterns, scents and even acoustic or electrostatic cues are all known to affect the behavior of different pollinators in different ways." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

LUCK IN THE BIRDS AND BEES BUSINESS. "However, there are peculiar challenges that come with such an unusual sex life. Many animals, such as bees, butterflies, flies, birds and bats, might be opportunistically interested in nectar carbohydrates, and plants cannot know or see which ones are in the vicinity, nor can they accept or reject a visitor. They can only offer their commodities to a diverse army of potential visitors from where they stand, and try their luck." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

SURROGATE PARTNERS. "This means that the morphology of angiosperm sex organs (flowers), rather than fitting those of the opposite sex, must generate a lock-and-key fit with the animals that visit them. These visitors do not normally come for sex; instead they are paid for their services, typically by means of sugary nectar or surplus pollen. Plants advertise these rewards with showy displays to assist pollinators in finding them." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL MESSENGERS. "Plants are immobile, and therefore they cannot choose their own sex partners. To cope with this handicap, several lineages of plants have invented a trick to facilitate the directed transfer of gametes: harnessing animals as go-betweens. This is known in some gymnosperms and even mosses, but it is in the angiosperms where animal pollination is most commonly encountered and where, in many cases, it has evolved exquisite complexity." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE contemplates plant-pollinator interactions for this and next weekend. The emergence of green plants on Earth changed the world by providing an abundant food source, a habitat, and an ecosystem for nested hierarchies of diverse creatures. Key amongst these were the pollinators that co-evolved with plants, and permitted their complex reproductive cycles. This complex mutualistic co-evolution of flowering plants and pollinators has been pieced together over time and tells the story of how evolution is more about cooperation than competition. View in LinkedIn

THE TRACE. “Memory is not a carbon copy, but rather a reconstruction, of the world we've experienced.” http://io9.gizmodo.com/memory-implantation-is-now-officially-real-909746570 View in LinkedIn

PROFESSOR GRAHAM COLLINGRIDGE (also a winner of the Brain Prize) “suggests we may feel able to remove distressing memories using drugs.” https://lnkd.in/dnaUMmN View in LinkedIn

PRION-LIKE PROTEINS. “Long-term Memories Are Maintained by Prion-like Proteins. As long as these aggregates are present, Kandel says, long-term memories persist. Prion aggregates renew themselves by continually recruiting newly made soluble prions into the aggregates. "This ongoing maintenance is crucial," said Dr. Kandel. "It's how you remember, for example, your first love for the rest of your life." https://lnkd.in/dgF6U_j View in LinkedIn