Tag Archives: sexual reproduction

Gardener’s Delight Offers Glimpse into the Evolution of Flowering Plants

The Pink Double Dandy peony, the Double Peppermint petunia, the Doubled Strawberry Vanilla lily and nearly all roses are varieties cultivated for their double flowers.

The blossoms of these and other such plants are lush with extra petals in place of the parts of the flower needed for sexual reproduction and seed production, meaning double flowers – though beautiful – are mutants and usually sterile.

The genetic interruption that causes that mutation helped scientists in the 1990s pinpoint the genes responsible for normal development of sexual organs stamens and carpels in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, long used as a plant model by biologists. (more…)

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UCLA Life Scientists’ Study of Abalone Yields New Insights into Sexual Reproduction

*Research could lead to techniques to improve fertilization in humans*

In new research that could have implications for improving fertilization in humans and other mammals, life scientists studied interactions between individual sperm and eggs in red abalone, an ocean-dwelling snail, and made precise chemical measurements and physical models of these interactions. They are the first scientists to do so.

By simulating the natural habitat of the abalone in the laboratory, the scientists were able to determine the conditions under which sperm–egg encounters and fertilization were most likely to occur. (more…)

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U of T Biologists Identify Influence of Environment on Sexual vs. Asexual Reproduction

Image credit: University of Toronto

Evolutionary biologists at U of T have found that environment plays a key role in determining whether a species opts for sexual over asexual reproduction.

The study, led by post-doctoral student Lutz Becks and Professor Aneil Agrawal of ecology and evolutionary biology, found that species that inhabit spatially heterogenous environments – habitats characterized by uneven concentrations of its own species among a rich variety of other animals and plants – had higher rates of sexual reproduction than those in more homogenous environments. (more…)

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