Annals of Botany 2009 104(6):i; doi:10.1093/aob/mcp263
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ContentSnapshots
Evolution of bat pollination (Invited Review)
Bat pollination
occurs in about 250 genera in 67 plant families and is clearly
a derived pollination mode in most plant lineages.
Fleming et al. (pp. 1017–1043) examine this mode from a phylogenetic perspective and discuss
reasons why plants might want to use energetically expensive
bats as their pollen dispersers. They propose that flower-visiting
bats provide two important benefits to plants: they deposit
large amounts of pollen and a variety of pollen genotypes on
plant stigmas and, compared with many other pollinators, they
are long-distance pollen dispersers.
Cell wall macromolecules of Chara
The Charophycean
green alga,
Chara corallina, undergoes a rapid and complex differentiation
process during production of multicellular antheridia.
Domozych et al. (pp. 1045–1056) use a combination of approaches including immunobinding and
ultrastructural analyses to identify cell wall polymers during
antheridium development. Many polymers common to embryophyte
cell walls are recognized although specific distribution patterns
in inclusive ‘tissues’ are found to vary.
Intraspecific variation in flooding-induced shoot elongation
Submergence-induced
shoot elongation is an essential trait for plants from habitats
with shallow, prolonged flooding.
Chen et al. (pp. 1057–1067) find variation in this trait both among and within populations
of the wetland species
Rumex palustris, but this is independent
of habitat type. Spatio-temporal variation in flooding may have
contributed to the maintenance of this genetic variation in
elongation responses. (
Featured article in ContentSelect on p. v.)
Genetics and conservation in Minorcan cork oaks
Conservation measures
too often have to be taken without all the desirable genetic
information being available.
Lorenzo et al. (pp. 1069–1076) illustrate the usefulness of genetic surveys for assessing conservation
priorities and strategies in marginal populations, focusing
on cork oak,
Quercus suber, in the Balearic Islands as a case
study. Despite the limited population, the oaks show very high
genetic diversity and structure, which should influence the
planning of conservation efforts for this endangered species.
Do scent and colour matter in orchids?
Orchids are renowned
for their showy, colourful flowers and their specialized interactions
with insects; however, pollinator attraction is sometimes primarily
mediated by the floral scent, particularly in species that lure
their pollen vectors by the false promise of sex.
Vereecken and Schiestl (pp. 1077–1084) investigate how perianth colour and floral scent influence pollinator
visitation rates in the sexually deceptive species
Ophrys arachnitiformis and find that chemical signals alone can mediate the interactions
in this highly specialized mimicry system. (
Featured article in ContentSelect on p. v.)
Comparative development of C4 and C3 leaf vein patterns
In C
4 species, high
vein density is adaptive and essential for C
4 photosynthetic
functioning. A leaf development study of C
3 and C
4 Flaveria by
McKown and Dengler (pp. 1085–1098) shows that this
shift is achieved primarily through accelerated and earlier
offset of minor vein formation, and that the characteristic
high vein density in C
4 species results from changes in the
number of minor veins formed.
Evolution of petal identity in Leguminosae
Legumes have a great
diversity in flower morphology and petal types.
Ojeda et al. (pp. 1099–1110) perform a survey of the petal micromorphology of the three types
of petals within the family and provide a classification of
the epidermal types. They discuss the association of these epidermal
types with petal identity, patterns of its evolution and links
with their genetic and developmental basis.
Flooding and establishment of an Amazonian tree
In the Amazonian
floodplains, plants withstand annual periods of flooding that
can last 7 months.
Ferreira et al. (pp. 1111–1119) study
Himatanthus sucuuba, a tree species found in contrasting floodplain
and adjacent non-flooded forest environments (terra firme and
várzea populations). They suggest divergent evolution
is critical to survival, with larger carbohydrate allocation
to germination in non-flooded populations whereas those subject
to flooding allocate comparatively more to carbohydrates mobilized
during seedling development.
AtSUC2 mutants produce viable seed
AtSUC2 encodes the
predominant Suc/H
+ symporter involved in phloem loading and
is essential for efficient phloem transport and growth. However,
Srivastava et al. (pp. 1121–1128) demonstrate that plants
homozygous for a null allele (
Atsuc2-4) complete their life
cycle and produce viable seed.
Arabidopsis thus appears to have
mechanisms for mobilizing reduced carbon from sites of photosynthesis
to developing seeds independent of
AtSUC2. (
Featured article in ContentSelect on p. vi.)
Reproductive biology of an andromonoecious cucurbit
Cucumis melo subsp.
agrestis (Cucurbitaceae) is cultivated in many African regions
for its edible kernels.
Kouonon et al. (pp. 1129–1139) study the evolution and maintenance of andromonoecy in this
species and find it to be fully self-compatible, with very low
inbreeding depression. However, the species is self-infertile
and insect-mediated pollination is essential for reproductive
success. The role of male flowers could be linked to limitation
of pollen transfer.
Elaiophores in the orchid Gomesa bifolia
Oils are an unusual
floral reward found in the Orchidaceae and are produced by elaiophores;
they have been described in a few species of Oncidiinae.
Aliscioni et al. (pp. 1141–1149) identify the presence of elaiophores in the labellar callus
of
Gomesa bifolia and find them to be of the epithelial type.
The oil appears to pass through the outer tangential wall and
the cuticle, covering the latter without forming cuticular blisters.
Litter decomposability affected by leaf traits
The rate of plant
decomposition depends on both the decomposition environment
and the functional traits of the individual species (e.g. leaf
and litter quality), but their relative importance in determining
interspecific differences in litter decomposition remains unclear.
By studying 17 herbaceous species representative of three stages
of a Mediterranean succession,
Kazakou et al. (pp. 1151–1161) demonstrate that species litter decomposability is affected
by some leaf and litter traits but not by soil nitrogen supply.
Growth strategy and flooding depth in Lotus
Lotus tenuis is
a forage legume of increasing importance in areas prone to soil
waterlogging, or shallow to complete submergence.
Manzur et al. (pp. 1163–1169) show that
L. tenuis is able to change its growth strategy depending
on the degree of plant submergence. Either an escape strategy
based on promoted shoot elongation or a quiescence strategy
based on consumption of stored reserves is selected depending
on whether plants are partially or completely submerged. (
Featured article in ContentSelect on p. vi.)
Oil palm responses to climate
Flowering and fruit
production of oil palm,
Elaeis guineensis, show seasonal maxima
whose causes are unknown.
Legros et al. (pp. 1171–1182) study phenological and growth responses of adult oil palms and
suggest that even near the equator seasonal peaks of flowering
in oil palm are controlled by photoperiod response within a
phytomer. These patterns are confounded with drought effects
that affect flowering (yield) with a long time-lag.
Oil palm responses to fruit pruning
Despite its simple
architecture and small phenotypic plasticity, oil palm (
Elaeis guineensis) has complex phenology and source–sink interactions.
Legros et al. (pp. 1183–1194) use fruit pruning to determine
that although sink limitation results in an increase in the
rate of development and the proportion of female inflorescences,
the low plasticity of plant architecture limits compensatory
growth. Non-structural carbohydrate storage is thus the main
adjustment process.
Masting causes variation in shoot production
Masting, or synchronized
intermittent reproduction, is a common phenomenon among tree
species; however, underlying physiological mechanisms such as
resource allocation are unclear. In
Betula grossa,
Ishihara and Kikuzawa (pp. 1195–1205) find that masting causes annual variation in shoot demography
and leaf area, and resource-allocation models may thus benefit
from incorporation of this variation in masting species.
Ash content and yield potential in maize
There is a need
for relatively easy-to-use phenotyping tools for breeding programmes
aimed at improving drought adaptation in C
4 crops such as maize.
Cabrera-Bosquest et al. (pp. 1207–1216) compare the use
of ash content with the stable isotopes
13C and
18O in assessing
yield potential of
Zea mays. They find that ash content in leaves
and kernels proves a useful alternative or complementary criterion
to
18O in kernels for assessing yield performance in maize grown
under drought conditions.
Morphometric traits and climate gradients
Based on pre-existing
data from quadrat surveys and information from published floras,
Meng et al. (pp. 1217–1229) analyse changes within six
plant morphometric traits along gradients of growing season
temperature and plant water availability in northern China,
and find that all traits show clear patterns along the gradients.
This opens the possibility of using quadrat- and flora-based
trait analyses to examine climate–trait relationships
in other regions of the world.
Fragmentation impact on diversity of Dalbergia
Using nuclear and
chloroplast microsatellite markers,
Andrianoelina et al. (pp. 1231–1242) analyse the impact of fragmentation on 18 populations of
Dalbergia monticola, an endangered tree species in Madagascar. They find
a high diversity, an absence of a bottleneck, a pattern of isolation
by distance and a moderate differentiation among populations,
which suggest a weak genetic signal of fragmentation that could
be due to the small number of
D. monticola generations since
its establishment on the island.
Reproductive anatomy and systematics of Decaisnea
Decaisnea is a
monotypic genus of Lardizabalaceae, and its embryology has only
been subject to one study, over 50 years ago.
Wang et al. (pp. 1243–1253) re-examine early embryological events in
D. insignis, and determine
that pollen is shed when 3-celled, not 2-celled, as previously
reported, and that endosperm formation is nuclear. These two
characters are not found in any other members of Lardizabalaceae,
leading to the suggestion that
Decaisnea needs elevation in
taxonomic status above the level of genus.
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