Welcome to the 36th edition of Berry Go Round. The previous round occured at An Accidental Botanist, and the next will be hosted at the Phytophactor. I wish I had more time to elaborate on the many readings I was offered this month, but January is also the time of flu… So I’ll be shorter than expected. Also, I’d like to promise you a smart bulking of links arranged in topics and alphabetical ranking, but if a bunch or two seems not to follow any classification scheme, that would be for the super hat category.
Here we go…
1.GMODs
GMO is really cool, thematically speaking. Because you could discuss and digress at wish. So we’ll bring back to this purpose. Especially now that you can manage to create your own GMOs at home at fait prices. Yep. This is a saga brought earlier last year, that’ll be resurrected for completness here: DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? –1–2–3.
Then, at least, could somebody create the long expected Superduper weeds? We’re waiting. (Or are we?).
Another side of GMOing on the corner (and not only the corn), it safely brings issues at multiple scales: what if some just want to have normal seeds? (yet let GMOers be happy too). It appears it may not be as easy as it seems: The Holy Grail: find the GMO-free zone.
Okay, apart from being bio high techs, GMO and genomics are not the same, but they often go hand in hand in everyday lab life, so we’ll keep them together (though for simplicity purposes): the lupin is the next plant species whose genome is to be sequenced. Apparently.
And while we’re at the section covering economic crops, let’s have a look at making Rhizobia more efficient…
2. Seedless!
I wish I had time to dig it myself, but Plant moss and more has. If we were to create a record book of biology, plants would certainly get most of the prices. This is the story of founding effect, in which a small quantity of migrants will colonize some place, leaving a genetic footprint to the next generations (at least as long as migration is a rare event). A ‘moss’ species managed to colonize a continent from a single haploid individual… 100% peat moss!
Music around plants is probably more frequent than we think. Please discover the Fern rap.
3. Parasites, sex, and how long/far you can trace it back
A conifer parasited. Then sex for ID. Note that Sarcozona could not find a berry but still submitted the post… :)
Pollen grains are cool. Pollen records are telling you many things. Greg tells us about Florida flora and how evidence is not necessarily obvious.
To population biologists, sex is no more than the extent of gene flow (okay, I may over-interpretate). And your prefered way to have sex changes this a lot. More details at Islands in the seventh sky.
In Northern hemisphere, it’s time for the very early flowers.
4. Taxonomy, all levels
Birch tree. All that matters is being able to get the ID during wintertime!
Mt Kaala plants. A sciencey journey via pictures.
Peeling the Lily. The other Asparagales… :)
Phragmipedium besseae Like it says
Citrus Agrodiversity.
Orchid pollination, with in the light of U.V.
Chritmum maritimum (a pollination game).
5. The Plant List
Following the plant list project, two of you have digged into the resources and brought up insightful posts… Great use of the common goods:
6. Plant Science
I don’t give full details about contents, but contents emerge quite good enough from the link titles, so let it go:
How do trees survive the cold?
The Pot effect. What’s more, I can only agree with the ending comment about pot effect in experimental designs and real life.
Clockwise dom… Turning around, for plants, can misplace jargon.
An obituary for G. L. Stebbins. Dobzhanski, Simpson and Mayr and all well known for their role in the emergence of the New Synthesis. So far, I don’t think Stebbins gained as much popularity. Would it be because he was a plant biologist?
7. Book reviews:
and a comment on a documentary: Venus Flytrap.ped
8. Arts
Why is BGR still here? I learnt principles of collective intelligence follow very basic principles:
Take turns. Listen to others equally. Have women involved. I guess this is also what made BGR enrooting for so long and I wish to thank Mary and Sarcozona for bringing BGR to its best, and to ensure its sustainability. Thanks a lot!
While we’re at it, please feel free to volunteer for hosting editions this year. Or propose your peers to do so. Remember that all blogs can host, even if they are not dedicated to plants per se.
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With 799 words!
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