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Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Biology

Dartmouth College

2008

Physiology

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Nectar Secondary Compounds Affect Self-Pollen Transfer: Implications For Female And Male Reproduction, Rebecca E. Irwin, Lynn S. Adler Aug 2008

Nectar Secondary Compounds Affect Self-Pollen Transfer: Implications For Female And Male Reproduction, Rebecca E. Irwin, Lynn S. Adler

Dartmouth Scholarship

Pollen movement within and among plants affects inbreeding, plant fitness, and the spatial scale of genetic differentiation. Although a number of studies have assessed how plant and floral traits influence pollen movement via changes in pollinator behavior, few have explored how nectar chemical composition affects pollen transfer. As many as 55% of plants produce secondary compounds in their nectar, which is surprising given that nectar is typically thought to attract pollinators. We tested the hypothesis that nectar with secondary compounds may benefit plants by encouraging pollinators to leave plants after visiting only a few flowers, thus reducing self-pollen transfer. We …


Chloroplast Fe(Iii) Chelate Reductase Activity Is Essential For Seedling Viability Under Iron Limiting Conditions, Jeeyon Jeong, Christopher Cohu, Loubna Kerkeb, Marinus Pilon, Erin L. Connolly, Mary Lou Guerinot Jul 2008

Chloroplast Fe(Iii) Chelate Reductase Activity Is Essential For Seedling Viability Under Iron Limiting Conditions, Jeeyon Jeong, Christopher Cohu, Loubna Kerkeb, Marinus Pilon, Erin L. Connolly, Mary Lou Guerinot

Dartmouth Scholarship

Photosynthesis, heme biosynthesis, and Fe-S cluster assembly all take place in the chloroplast, and all require iron. Reduction of iron via a membrane-bound Fe(III) chelate reductase is required before iron transport across membranes in a variety of systems, but to date there has been no definitive genetic proof that chloroplasts have such a reduction system. Here we report that one of the eight members of the Arabidopsis ferric reductase oxidase (FRO) family, FRO7, localizes to the chloroplast. Chloroplasts prepared from fro7 loss-of-function mutants have 75% less Fe(III) chelate reductase activity and contain 33% less iron per microgram of chlorophyll than …