The flower’s ability to adapt to the attractive behavior of pollinators to attract its nectar has long intrigued scientists.
Flowers can’t buy glasses and wigs to hide, so how they came up with such attractive things, using existing DNA tools, is amazing.
Orchids are the most famous insect-like flower, and it can be seen by the irresistible smell of the unsuspecting insect, Casanova, whose little among the particles leaves an insect full of orchid pollen, so that it spreads to other flowers .
Orchids evolved this behavior long ago, and with such great success that anyone without these traits is long gone.
This is why scientists looked at the South African daisy Very commonwhose sexual imitation appeared very recently in the history of evolution, and it is not the same as all other flowers.
The flowers of this flower are pale yellow, red like orange, some have circular dots in the center of the flower.
The appearance of these flowers varies greatly, and in some areas, the spots change to greenish-black spots that, to the fly, look exactly like the female, which waits eagerly on the petals.
The evolution of the various species of this species has recently been made to reveal how the conditions evolved to reach such a convincing illusion: first it showed color, then random care, then form.
The new study, led by evolutionary biologist Roman Kellenberger of the University of Cambridge, is investigating how three sets of genes, which previously had nothing to do with fly attraction, became part of its dangerous strategies.
Plant biologist and lead author Beverley Glover of the University of Cambridge says.
“It brought together existing genes, which already do other things in different parts of the plant, to create complex environments on the hills that deceive male flies.”
One of these genes moves iron around the plant, another causes root hairs to grow, and a third controls when flowers are produced.
Iron-shifting genes create droplets that guide pathogens into the center of the flower to receive nectar, a tried-and-true pollination method that flowers relied on long before sexual reproduction.
The combination of pigments (carotenoids, which create the yellow-orange color, and the dark blue-blue color of anthocyanins) is a dark blue-green color – the same color that we associate with the carapace of a fly.
Genes that normally inhibit flower production have also been modified, such as “turning off” the nectar-directing locus, allowing ‘false flies’ to appear permanently on leaves.
If the way to attract insects is to advertise the flower’s nectar, then the bright spots are like a parking lot sign. But when the process is the same as sex, it seems that for flies, less is more.
Genes that are normally produced in the plant’s root hairs are responsible for keeping the dupe alive, which makes the daisy-like spots look like flies.
The protein that this gene produces, EXPA, relaxes the plant’s cell walls, which results in “irreversible growth”. In the petal, this protein causes the existing hair to grow, giving it its superior appearance.
This gene was almost completely involved in the production of leaves and spotted florets; it was strongly expressed in root development; as well as growing spotted flowers.
But the researchers know that this gene is involved in ‘broadening’ which would be like a cardboard cut of a female fly, because it is only expressed in the flowers of the most attractive flowers, and even among them, this expression is not found at all. petals without spots or spots.
You can imagine how many flowers there are with this 3D upgrade.
“Male flies don’t spend as much time on flowers with simple spots, but they are so attracted to false flies that they spend more time trying to mate, and remove more pollen from the flower – helping pollination,” says Kellenberger. .
Bringing together three sets of existing genes, it seems has created a shortcut for these secretive experts.
This study was published in Modern Biology.
