Flowers Are Evolving To Have Less Sex (nytimes.com) 37
As the number of bees and other pollinators falls, field pansies are adapting by fertilizing their own seeds, a new study found. From a report: Every spring, trillions of flowers mate with the help of bees and other animals. They lure the pollinators to their flowers with flashy colors and nectar. As the animals travel from flower to flower, they take pollen with them, which can fertilize the seeds of other plants. A new study suggests that humans are quickly altering this annual rite of spring. As toxic pesticides and vanishing habitats have driven down the populations of bees and other pollinators, some flowers have evolved to fertilize their own seeds more often, rather than those of other plants.
Scientists said they were surprised by the speed of the changes, which occurred in just 20 generations. "That's rapid evolution," said Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Montpellier in France who led the research. Dr. Cheptou was inspired to carry out the study when it became clear that bees and other pollinators were in a drastic decline. Would flowers that depend on pollinators for sex, he wondered, find another way to reproduce? The study focused on a weedy plant called the field pansy, whose white, yellow and purple flowers are common in fields and on roadsides across Europe. Field pansies typically use bumblebees to sexually reproduce. But they can also use their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds, a process called selfing.
Selfing is more convenient than sex, since a flower does not have to wait for a bee to drop by. But a selfing flower can use only its own genes to produce new seeds. Sexual reproduction allows flowers to mix their DNA, creating new combinations that may make them better prepared for diseases, droughts and other challenges that future generations may face. To track the evolution of field pansies in recent decades, Dr. Cheptou and his colleagues took advantage of a cache of seeds that France's National Botanical Conservatories collected in the 1990s and early 2000s. The researchers compared these old flowers with new ones from across the French countryside. After growing the new and old seeds side by side in the lab under identical conditions, they discovered that selfing had increased 27 percent since the 1990s.
Scientists said they were surprised by the speed of the changes, which occurred in just 20 generations. "That's rapid evolution," said Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Montpellier in France who led the research. Dr. Cheptou was inspired to carry out the study when it became clear that bees and other pollinators were in a drastic decline. Would flowers that depend on pollinators for sex, he wondered, find another way to reproduce? The study focused on a weedy plant called the field pansy, whose white, yellow and purple flowers are common in fields and on roadsides across Europe. Field pansies typically use bumblebees to sexually reproduce. But they can also use their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds, a process called selfing.
Selfing is more convenient than sex, since a flower does not have to wait for a bee to drop by. But a selfing flower can use only its own genes to produce new seeds. Sexual reproduction allows flowers to mix their DNA, creating new combinations that may make them better prepared for diseases, droughts and other challenges that future generations may face. To track the evolution of field pansies in recent decades, Dr. Cheptou and his colleagues took advantage of a cache of seeds that France's National Botanical Conservatories collected in the 1990s and early 2000s. The researchers compared these old flowers with new ones from across the French countryside. After growing the new and old seeds side by side in the lab under identical conditions, they discovered that selfing had increased 27 percent since the 1990s.
Evolving to have less sex⦠(Score:5, Funny)
Re:Evolving to have less sex (Score:4, Funny)
incels (Score:2)
so is this the plant version of "incel"?
[oh, no. *Please* tell me that *they* are not going to be able to reproduce by themselves!]
And in real world (Score:3)
Most life forms have alternative mechanisms for meeting certain critical needs. It's all but certain that this is a secondary mechanism that existed in plants far longer than humans roamed the earth, because there surely have been scenarios where pollinators died for a while in certain regions, and didn't wipe out all life (as all life fundamentally depends on plant life).
This is simply about environmental stimuli activating this more alternative mechanisms about a quarter more than before. This isn't some new evolutionary trait as is being advertised.
Re: (Score:2)
read:
To track the evolution of field pansies in recent decades, Dr. Cheptou and his colleagues took advantage of a cache of seeds that France's National Botanical Conservatories collected in the 1990s and early 2000s. The researchers compared these old flowers with new ones from across the French countryside. After growing the new and old seeds side by side in the lab under identical conditions, they discovered that selfing had increased 27 percent since the 1990s.
Re: (Score:3)
Comprehend: they're describing plants shifting more to alternative mechanism than the primary one.
Want another example of this from a different kingdom? Many different worms. They're hermaphroditic just like most plants. And if they don't encounter another worm, they also inseminate themselves.
This is not an evolution. This is a relational change between two pre-existing behavioral patterns.
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ok, my bad. read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
(hint: first paragraph)
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Comprehend:
Biological evolution is a specific of a genetic adaptive process that changes genome and its expression along the time scale. Already existing genome, with already existing expression is not evolution. It's expression of already existing evolutionary traits. In this case, as I noted above traits involved are older than our species and are present across not just different species, but different kingdoms.
The claim isn't that this is or is not evolved behaviour. All behaviour is evolved, because al
Re: (Score:2)
it is indeed a well known function that is activated by the environment. nowhere is it claimed that this was a new trait, quite the contrary. you disputed a claim no one made and isn't even relevant to the issue, then.
as the study shows, the offspring is more likely to self regardless of environmental factors. this is a "genetic adaptive process that changed genome", making it's expression more likely. this is exactly how evolution works.
Re: (Score:2)
Story makes claims such as:
"Would flowers that depend on pollinators for sex, he wondered, find another way to reproduce?"
Strongly implying new methods.
Study itself:
https://nph.onlinelibrary.wile... [wiley.com]
Does not because it's actual science rather than popular science.
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well, the next sentence cites pansies. and the next 2 after that ...
"Field pansies typically use bumblebees to sexually reproduce. But they can also use their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds, a process called selfing."
making it obvious (imo) that it is a known behavior.
dunno about you, but i'm not going to die on this hill. editing tends to be crap nowadays (as in high levels of attention seeking noise vs actual information) but you can easily find much, much worse, and in this case i think a reader can easily figure out the context of that expression. i mean, if you are going to nail every article because of writing like this you might as well stop read
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>editing tends to be crap nowadays
That was my (arguably poorly made) point, though it's not just editing. It's the entire process of "I skimmed through the scientific study, let me tell you what my 100IQ liberal arts degree allowed me to gleam from it". Hence the "science vs popular science" point in my previous post.
It's not that uncommon (Score:3)
Some plants do this almost exclusively - tomatoes and peppers, for instance, self-pollinate as the wind jostles the flowers. Pea and bean flowers (note: this does not include runner beans) self pollinate as the flower matures, the very act of opening triggering pollination. Other plants have light enough pollen that they can cross-pollinate by their pollen riding the wind.
From the description, it's obvious these pansies have always self-pollinated to at least some degree. It would be interesting to note just how much of the increase is due to the plants adapting and becoming more successful at it, versus it being a relative increase due to the alarming decrease in the populations of certain pollinators.
Re:It's not that uncommon (Score:4, Funny)
self-pollinate as the wind jostles the flowers
Does that, like, set the mood?
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Yes! And, if you also play some soft jazz in the field, pollination rates go up another 15%!
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It would be interesting to note just how much of the increase is due to the plants adapting and becoming more successful at it, versus it being a relative increase due to the alarming decrease in the populations of certain pollinators.
27%. that is how much more current specimens "self" compared to specimens from 20 years ago, when grown in identical conditions. that's net adaptation (using a preexisting epigenetic mechanism).
20 generations is fast (Score:3)
20 generations is very fast. Makes me think the affected species probably evolved this ability long ago to deal with other events that suppress pollinator population, and something triggered the self-pollination genes to start being expressed, i.e. an epigenetic change, rather than a genetic change.
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It makes me think it's a bunch of bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
20 generations is very fast. Makes me think the affected species probably evolved this ability long ago to deal with other events that suppress pollinator population, and something triggered the self-pollination genes to start being expressed, i.e. an epigenetic change, rather than a genetic change.
Or there's a strong selective pressure caused by the plummeting numbers of insects.
Evolution is only slow when things are stable can work pretty rapidly when the pressures are there [wikipedia.org].
So are humans (Score:2)
It's hard to have sex over a phone....
Re: (Score:3)
Well, you CAN put it on vibrate...
Film at 11 (Score:2)
Selfing is more convenient than sex
Flowers (Score:2)
not only flowers (Score:1)
Even plants are smarter (Score:2)
Insect Decline (Score:4, Insightful)
That angiosperms are moving to less sex and other evolutionary tricks to get viable seeds would seem a natural consequence.
I am sure plenty of others can remember from "back in the day" when driving out and about coming home with a car smothered in bugs. Not so much these days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
This is bad (Score:2)
This is really bad for those species. It's reasonable to expect that, in a healthy species, there's going to be a few self-fertilizing mutant freaks born. But, when those self-fertilizing mutant freaks dominate the landscape because insects aren't doing the job and there's empty habitat for the freaks to expand into and dominate, it's inviting a blight to take them all out. And then, there will be very few flowers of the species to reproduce with the bees. There's going to be dramatic change.
"Selfing" has been done by humans for centuries (Score:2)