(Press-News.org) Soon, the gardens and fields will be blooming, fragrant and buzzing again. Bees, flies and beetles fly, as they have done for millions of years, from flower to flower in search of food or mates, drawn by flower shapes, colors and the scents of the individual plants. Often, pollinating insects favor certain scents and preferentially visit the flowers in question. Previously, researchers always assumed that floral scents and the fondness of pollinating insects for a specific scent evolved mutually via coevolution of plants and insects. However, the evolutionary biologist Florian Schiestl from the University of Zurich now proves that this was not the case with the arum family and their pollinators.
Scent of the scarab beetle mimicked
Schiestl and a colleague from Bayreuth studied the arum family and one of its pollinators, the scarab beetles. In the beetles, they discovered many scent molecules used for chemical communication that were also found in the plants. Based on a phylogenetic reconstruction, they realized that these scents were already present in the ancestors of today's scarab beetles. Evidently, these prehistoric scarab beetles already used the same or similar scents back in the Jurassic period to find food or mates. Unlike today's scarab beetles, these ancestors did not pollinate plants, the first members of the arum family to be pollinated by beetles not appearing until around 40 million years later. "In the course of evolution, the arum family mimicked the scents of scarab beetles to attract pollinating insects more efficiently," says Schiestl.
Coevolution less common than assumed
In research, coevolution is regarded as a driving force behind the development of a mutual adaptation between two organisms. However, this is not true of the arum family, which developed its scent along the pre-existing communication of scarab beetle scents. "Coevolution between plants and pollinating insects might well be less common than we thought," Schiestl concludes.
INFORMATION:
Literature:
Florian P. Schiestl, and Stefan Dötterl. The Evolution of Floral Scent and Olfactory Preferences in Pollinators: Coevolution or Pre-Existing Bias? Evolution. International Journal of Organic Evolution. March 12, 2012. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.20
Plants mimic scent of pollinating beetles
2012-04-04
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Quantum information motion control is now improved
2012-04-04
Physicists have recently devised a new method for handling the effect of the interplay between vibrations and electrons on electronic transport. Their paper is about to be published in EPJ B¹. This study, led by scientists from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and the Centre for Computational Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, could have implications for quantum computers due to improvements in the transport of discrete amounts of information, known as qubits, that are encoded in electrons.
The authors created an electron transport model ...
Increased risk of cardiovascular disease for relatives of cancer patients
2012-04-04
A current study shows that the risk for coronary heart disease and stroke increases by almost thirty per cent in a person whose partner has cancer. The cause is probably the negative stress to which the cancer patient's relative is exposed.
We know that the relatives of chronically ill patients, especially cancer patients, have an increased risk of mental illness and depression. Previous studies have reported that mental stress and depression affect the nervous system, blood pressure and inflammation, which in turn can increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease ...
Activity in brain networks related to features of depression
2012-04-04
Philadelphia, PA, April 3, 2012 – Depressed individuals with a tendency to ruminate on negative thoughts, i.e. to repeatedly think about particular negative thoughts or memories, show different patterns of brain network activation compared to healthy individuals, report scientists of a new study in Biological Psychiatry.
The risk for depression is increased in individuals with a tendency towards negative ruminations, but patterns of autobiographic memory also may be predictive of depression.
When asked to recall specific events, some individuals have a tendency to ...
EARTH: Foretelling next month's tornadoes
2012-04-04
Alexandria, VA – Tornadoes are notoriously difficult to forecast, with often deadly results: In 2011, tornadoes in the U.S. killed more than 550 people, a higher death toll than in the past 10 years combined. Now a new study on short-term climate trends offers a fresh approach to tornado forecasting that may give people in tornado-prone regions more warning that twisters may soon be descending.
By sorting through average atmospheric conditions in tornado-prone regions, Michael Tippet, a climate scientist at Columbia University, may have found a way to predict tornado ...
Researchers validate staging classifications for neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor surgery response
2012-04-04
TAMPA, Fla. (April 3, 2012) – Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have carried out a study to validate the utility of new tumor classification systems for staging and predicting relapse-free survival for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and who may be candidates for surgery.
The results of their study were published in a recent issue of the Annals of Surgery.
Neuroendocrine tumors, which form in the islet cells of the pancreas, are a relatively rare form of cancer, accounting for about 3 percent of all pancreatic malignancies. NETs that have not spread ...
Targeted therapeutics for colon cancer to be presented at AACR meeting
2012-04-04
(Boston) - Anurag Singh, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine has been invited to present his recent work on targeted therapeutics for colon cancer at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Singh's seminar, scheduled for Tuesday April 3rd, will be featured in the "Late-Breaking Abstracts Mini-Symposium". This highlights recent and provocative groundbreaking research in cancer biology.
Over one million cases of colon cancer are diagnosed worldwide ...
Being ignored online or in person, it's still exclusion
2012-04-04
People who are excluded by others online, such as on Facebook, may feel just as bad as if they had been excluded in person, according to researchers at Penn State and Misericordia University.
"If you've ever felt bad about being 'ignored' on Facebook you're not alone," said Joshua Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health and of medicine at Penn State. "Facebook -- with its approximately 800 million users -- serves as a place to forge social connections; however, it is often a way to exclude others without the awkwardness of a face-to-face interaction. Most people would ...
Higher-spending hospitals have fewer deaths for emergency patients
2012-04-04
Higher-spending hospitals do have better outcomes for their emergency patients, including fewer deaths, according to a Vanderbilt study released as a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Vanderbilt's John Graves, Ph.D., assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, along with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University, examined Medicare ambulance and hospital data from 2002-2008, finding that higher-cost hospitals have significantly lower one-year mortality rates compared to lower-cost hospitals.
"At ...
Acworth Dentist Announces New Location in Midtown, Atlanta
2012-04-04
Dr. Steve Hahn, Acworth prosthodontist, and his staff are pleased to announce the pending opening of a new location in Midtown, Atlanta. The new location will give Dr. Hahn and his associates access to a whole new group of patients.
Roughly 30 miles from the current Acworth location, the Midtown location will be able to bring dental services to a large population center in the heart of Atlanta. For patients of the Acworth dentist who may live closer to Midtown or are employed there, the new location offers a new level of convenience.
"We are all tremendously ...
Our brains on food: From anorexia to obesity and everything in between
2012-04-04
CHICAGO, IL – April 3, 2012 – The brains of people with anorexia and obesity are wired differently, according to new research. Neuroscientists for the first time have found that how our brains respond to food differs across a spectrum of eating behaviors – from extreme overeating to food deprivation. This study is one of several new approaches to help better understand and ultimately treat eating disorders and obesity.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. And more than two-thirds of the U.S. population are overweight or obese – a health ...