Annals of Botany 2008 101(3):NP; doi:10.1093/aob/mcn003
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ContentSnapshots
Abscisic acid receptors (Botanical Briefing)
Three distinct ABA
receptors have recently been identified and
Wang and Zhang (pp. 311–317) describe how this is helping to uncover the initial events of
ABA signal transduction. Multiple, plasmalemma-associated and
intracellular ABA receptors appear to be involved, with the
prospect of additional receptors being identified and thus adding
to the diversity of ABA signalling pathways.
Determinate root growth and meristem maintenance in angiosperms (Invited Review)
Analysis of determinate
growth in plant roots can help us understand how the root apical
meristem is maintained.
Shishkova et al. (pp. 319–340) review root ageing, constitutive and inducible determinacy,
as well as cellular and genetic mechanisms underlying root meristem
function in a broad taxonomic context.
Sensitivity cycling in Ipomoea seeds
Jayasuriya et al. (pp. 341–352) demonstrate cycling between sensitivity and insensitivity to
dormancy-break in physically dormant
Ipomoea lacunosa. Hitherto,
sensitivity cycling had been reported only in the Fabaceae.
Sensitivity cycling, rather than dormancy cycling
per se, is
the probable cause of seasonal germination behaviour in
I. lacunosa and other hard-seeded species.
Reproductive modes in Leiothrix: the role of microhabitat
Coelho et al. (pp. 353–360) propose that micro-environmental heterogeneity is an important
reproductive mode-generating factor in
Leiothrix. They show
that reproductive variation within
Leiothrix spp. occupying
different micro-environments results from responses to fine-scale
habitat variation. The role of ecological speciation in adaptive
radiation in this genus is discussed.
Computations on pattern selection at growing plant surfaces
The changing shape
of a growing plant may be governed by patterned growth at the
surface.
Holloway and Harrison (pp. 361–374) show that
reaction-diffusion patterning of a growth catalyst is able to
account for diverse branching processes.
Elaiophore structure and oil secretion in orchids
Many orchids of the
Oncidiinae reward insect pollinators with oil produced by floral
glands (elaiophores). The elaiophores are morphologically diverse
despite similarities in their oil composition.
Stpiczy
ska and Davies (pp. 375–384) describe the anatomy of dissimilar elaiophores from two members
of this clade and their mode of oil secretion.
Species delimitation controversy for Ophrys spp. orchids
Morphological inconsistencies
and lack of sequence variation have hindered past attempts to
produce a robust phylogenetic framework for the genus
Ophrys.
Devey et al. (pp. 385–402) address the problem by using
nuclear, plastid and AFLP datasets to develop a phylogenetic
basis for species delimitation and conservation recommendations.
ITS evolution in Platanus
Grimm and Denk (pp. 403–419) use 223 internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences for all
ten taxa of
Platanus and analyse functional and putative pseudogenous
ITS copies. It is found that patterns of sequence incompatibility
contain information about ancient hybridization and lateral
gene flow as key features of
Platanus evolution, and that reticulate
patterns of evolution can be represented with network methods
but not with tree-building methods.
Genome size and base content evolution of Festuca
Long-term dynamics
of genome size, chromosome size and base composition are examined
in
Festuca by
marda et al. (pp. 421–433). After an ancient
genome expansion, the evolution of derived taxa seems to have
been accompanied by successive reductions in chromosome size
and GC content with both also being affected by polyploidy.
Carbon translocation of understorey Trillium apetalon
Photosynthetic carbon
gain of understorey plants is influenced by seasonal leaf dynamics
of canopy trees.
Ida and Kudo (pp. 435–446) reveal that
in spring-blooming
T. apetalon, the time of canopy closure strongly
affects translocation of photosynthate to storage and reproductive
organs. Current reproduction is especially sensitive to any
advance in canopy closure time.
Systematic significance of ovule morphogenesis in Ranunculaceae
Wang and Ren (pp. 447–462) describe ovule morphogenesis in the Ranunculaceae, a family
with phylogenetic significance within the Ranunculales. Initiation
and development patterns of the integuments and the appendages
of ovules show considerable diversity and these characters help
classification at the subfamilial and tribal levels.
Silica deposition and photosynthesis
Motomura et al. (pp. 463–468) examine the effect of silica accumulation on leaf photosynthesis
and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency in
Sasa veitchii.
Both processes are shown to be strongly negatively correlated
with silica content in third-year leaves. These observations
suggest that silica accumulation by older leaves suppresses
photosynthesis.
Carbon budgets in northern spruce forest
The proportion of
carbon loss from woody tissue of stems and branches in Norway
spruce forest is studied by
Acosta et al. (pp. 469–477).
Although eddy covariance is useful for estimating CO
2 exchange
at the ecosystem level, determinations of CO
2 efflux from individual
component are shown to be needed to improve knowledge of carbon
budgets in forest ecosystems.
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