Solving the puzzle of mirror-image flowers.
Enantiostyly is a plant sexual polymorphism in which female sex organs are deflected to the left or right -- resulting in 'mirror-image' flowers -- but, although it occurs in at least a dozen unrelated families of flowering plants, its adaptive significance has been unclear. Here we show that a mendelian locus governs the inheritance of style orientation and that this curious form of sexual asymmetry functions to promote cross-pollination in bee-pollinated plants.
Jesson
Linley K
LK
Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Barrett
Spencer C H
SC
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005838:Genotype; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D018514:Plant Structures / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D011058:Pollen / Q000378:metabolism; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*