| Title | Biologists Unlock 51.7-Million-Year-Old Genetic Secret to Landmark Darwin Theory | |
| Date | Sunday December 04 2016, @04:29PM | |
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| from the hot-and-heavy-plant-sex dept. | ||
Scientists have identified the cluster of genes responsible for reproductive traits in the Primula flower, first noted as important by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.
Darwin hypothesised that some plant species with two distinct forms of flower, where male and female reproductive organs were of differing lengths, had evolved that way to promote out-crossing by insect pollinators.
His ground-breaking insight into the significance of the two forms of flower known as 'pins' and 'thrums' coined the term 'heterostyly', and subsequent studies contributed to the foundation of modern genetic theory.
And now scientists at the University of East Anglia, working at the John Innes Centre, have identified exactly which part of these species' genetic code made them that way, through an event that occurred more than 51 million years ago.
Full paper: Genetic architecture and evolution of the S locus supergene in Primula vulgaris DOI: 10.1038/nplants.2016.188
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