title: Fitness consequences of altering floral circadian oscillations for Nicotiana attenuata.
abstract: Ecological interactions between flowers and pollinators are all about timing. Flower opening/closing and scent emissions are largely synchronized with pollinator activity, and a circadian clock regulates these rhythms. However, whether the circadian clock increases a plant's reproductive success by regulating these floral rhythms remains untested. Flowers of Nicotiana attenuata, a wild tobacco, diurnally and rhythmically open, emit scent and move vertically through a 140° arc to interact with nocturnal hawkmoths. We tethered flowers to evaluate the importance of flower positions for Manduca sexta-mediated pollinations; flower position dramatically influenced pollination. We examined the pollination success of phase-shifted flowers, silenced in circadian clock genes, NaZTL, NaLHY, and NaTOC1, by RNAi. Circadian rhythms in N. attenuata flowers are responsible for altered seed set from outcrossed pollen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yon
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Youngsung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cortés Llorca
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.|Center for Genome Engineering, Institute for Basic Science, Yuseong-gu, 34047 Daejeon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Gyu
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Straße 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Ian T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Baldwin
mesh_terms: D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D011058:Pollen / Q000502:physiology; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000502:physiology*