Nature's gift for gardening may hold key to biodiversity
Gardeners are used to cross-breeding flowers to produce pretty petals or sweet scents -- now scientists have shown the importance of nature's talent for producing new types of flowers
2010-09-13
(Press-News.org) Gardeners are used to cross-breeding flowers to produce pretty petals or sweet scents – now scientists have shown the importance of nature's talent for producing new types of flowers.
DNA analysis of wild evergreen rhododendrons in the Himalayas has suggested that hundreds of species of the plant could be derived from hybrids – cross-breeds between different species.
Their findings may help explain the rich biodiversity of the natural world, as it shows how random pairings of wild plants millions of years ago has led to the development of hundreds of new species that exist today.
While scientists have long known that single species can derive from hybrid origins, this latest finding offers rare evidence that whole groups of species can be developed from a hybrid ancestor.
Scientists sampled the DNA of 79 species of rhododendron and used the results to analyse how each species was related.
They found that although most Himalayan rhododendrons were descended from the same ancestral line, three rogue species showed traces of a second, distantly related ancestor. This species, now extinct, may have arrived in the Himalayas within the last 10 million years, and interbred with species already there.
The discovery suggests that much of the diversity found in rhododendrons – and perhaps many other species – is a result of ancient cross-breeding, which has enabled a diverse range of offspring over many successive generations.
The joint study with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, published in the Journal of Plant Systematics and Evolution, was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council.
Dr Richard Milne of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences, who led the research, said: "Nature seems to be more creative than the most gifted of gardeners. Cross-breeding in the wild may have played a significant part in contributing to the wealth of species on Earth today – but more work is needed to investigate the significance of this."
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-09-13
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have identified a novel structure in cells that serves as a control switch in the body's system for eliminating damaged cells and also offers new therapeutic potential.
The findings provide fresh insight into the machinery at work as cells ramp up production of p53 protein following DNA damage. The p53 protein plays a critical role in how cells respond to the stress that damages DNA. The gene that carries instructions for making p53 protein is the most commonly mutated gene in human cancers.
Investigators also identified ...
2010-09-13
A team of Welsh scientists have successfully cloned a human virus offering new hope for the treatment of potentially life-threatening diseases.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major infectious cause of congenital malformations worldwide. The virus is also known to cause life-threatening disease in transplant patients and people with HIV/AIDS.
The development of new treatments has been hampered as scientists have been unable to stably replicate HCMV outside the human body.
Dr Richard Stanton from Cardiff University's School of Medicine who led the joint research, ...
2010-09-13
Beyond the orbit of Neptune reside countless icy rocks known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). One of the biggest, Pluto, is classified as a dwarf planet. The region also supplies us with comets such as famous Comet Halley. Most TNOs are small and receive little sunlight, making them faint and difficult to spot.
Now, astronomers using clever techniques to cull the data archives of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have added 14 new TNOs to the catalog. Their method promises to turn up hundreds more.
"Trans-Neptunian objects interest us because they are building blocks ...
2010-09-13
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Racism may be less of a factor in politics than other realms of life, according to a new University of Florida study, which found few white voters in Florida to be upset by the presidential candidacy of a black man, and many to be proud of it.
To assess attitudes among white voters in a southern state about Barack Obama's historic election to the presidency, two UF political scientists analyzed results from four statewide telephone surveys -- each involving between 449 and 829 respondents – conducted in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009. Their ...
2010-09-13
Earthy or musty odors, along with visual evidence of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, may serve as a warning that harmful cyanotoxins are present in lakes or reservoirs. In a newly published USGS study of cyanobacterial blooms in Midwest lakes, taste-and-odor compounds were found almost every time cyanotoxins were found, indicating odor may serve as a warning that harmful toxins are present.
"It is commonly believed that there are no health risks associated with taste-and-odor compounds," said Dr. Jennifer Graham, USGS limnologist and lead scientist on this ...
2010-09-13
Though it was once believed that all asteroids are giant pieces of solid rock, later hypotheses have it that some are actually a collection of small gravel-sized rocks, held together by gravity. If one of these "rubble piles" spins fast enough, it's speculated that pieces could separate from it through centrifugal force and form a second collection ― in effect, a second asteroid.
Now researchers at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with an international group of scientists, have proved the existence of these theoretical "separated asteroid" pairs.
Ph.D. student ...
2010-09-13
EVANSTON, Ill. --- It seems the old nature versus nurture debate can't be won. But a new Northwestern University study of men in the Philippines makes a strong case for nurture's role in male to female differences -- suggesting that rapid weight gain in the first six months of life predicts earlier puberty for boys.
Males who experienced rapid growth as babies -- an indication that they were not nutritionally stressed -- also were taller, had more muscle and were stronger, and had higher testosterone levels as young adults. They had sex for the first time at a younger ...
2010-09-13
Gainesville, FL. -- The first genetic study to compare nuclear DNA of endangered Antillean manatees in Belize with Florida manatees confirmed their designation as separate subspecies. Belize's manatees, however, were found to have extremely low genetic diversity, raising questions about their long-term genetic viability.
The Central American country of Belize hosts the largest known breeding population of Antillean manatees and is touted by biologists for its potential to repopulate other parts of Central America where manatees are severely reduced, rare or absent.
...
2010-09-13
When looking for a new physician, patients are often encouraged to select those who are board certified or who have not made payments on malpractice claims. Yet these characteristics are not always a good predictor of which physicians will provide the highest quality medical care, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"We found that the types of information widely available to patients for choosing a physician do not predict whether that physician will deliver evidence-based ...
2010-09-13
An unusual wildflower that accumulates metals in its leaves has been found to use them as a kind of 'armor' against bacterial infection. Scientists from Oxford University have shown that when Alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) plants accumulate metals in their leaves, they become resistant to attack by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola. They report their findings September 9 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.
Thlaspi, a small plant in the mustard family that grows on metal-rich soils scattered around Britain and Europe, such as the sites ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Nature's gift for gardening may hold key to biodiversity
Gardeners are used to cross-breeding flowers to produce pretty petals or sweet scents -- now scientists have shown the importance of nature's talent for producing new types of flowers
