scholarly journals Patterns of Diversity of Floral Symmetry in Angiosperms: A Case Study of the Order Apiales

Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Maxim Nuraliev ◽  
Dmitry Sokoloff ◽  
Polina Karpunina ◽  
Alexei Oskolski

Floral symmetry is widely known as one of the most important structural traits of reproductive organs in angiosperms. It is tightly related to the shape and arrangement of floral parts, and at the same time, it plays a key role in general appearance (visual gestalt) of a flower, which is especially important for the interactions of zoophilous flowers with their pollinators. The traditional classification of floral symmetry divides nearly all the diversity of angiosperm flowers into actinomorphic and zygomorphic ones. Within this system, which is useful for ecological studies, many variations of symmetry appear to be disregarded. At the same time, the diversity of floral symmetry is underpinned not only by ecological factors, but also by morphogenetic mechanisms and constraints. Sometimes it is not an easy task to uncover the adaptive or developmental significance of a change of the floral symmetry in a particular lineage. Using the asterid order Apiales as a model group, we demonstrate that such changes can correlate with the merism of the entire flower or of its particular whorl, with the relative orientation of gynoecium to the rest of the flower, with the presence of sterile floral elements and other morphological characters. Besides, in some taxa, the shape and symmetry of the flower change in the course of its development, which should be taken in consideration in morphological comparisons and evaluations of synapomorphies in a particular clade. Finally, we show that different results can be obtained due to employment of different approaches: for instance, many flowers that are traditionally described as actinomorphic turn out to be disymmetric, monosymmetric, or asymmetric from a more detailed look. The traditional method of division into actinomorphy and zygomorphy deals with the general appearance of a flower, and mainly considers the shape of the corolla, while the geometrical approach handles the entire three-dimensional structure of the flower, and provides an exact number of its symmetry planes.

Author(s):  
Leonardo Baglioni ◽  
Federico Fallavollita

AbstractThe present essay investigates the potential of generative representation applied to the study of relief perspective architectures realized in Italy between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In arts, and architecture in particular, relief perspective is a three-dimensional structure able to create the illusion of great depths in small spaces. A method of investigation applied to the case study of the Avila Chapel in Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome (Antonio Gherardi 1678) is proposed. The research methodology can be extended to other cases and is based on the use of a Relief Perspective Camera, which can create both a linear perspective and a relief perspective. Experimenting mechanically and automatically the perspective transformations from the affine space to the illusory space and vice versa has allowed us to see the case study in a different light.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3562
Author(s):  
Serena Mucciolo ◽  
Andrea Desiderato ◽  
Marika Salonna ◽  
Tomasz Mamos ◽  
Viviane Prodocimo ◽  
...  

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of membrane channels facilitating diffusion of water and small solutes into and out of cells. Despite their biological relevance in osmoregulation and ubiquitous distribution throughout metazoans, the presence of AQPs in annelids has been poorly investigated. Here, we searched and annotated Aqp sequences in public genomes and transcriptomes of annelids, inferred their evolutionary relationships through phylogenetic analyses and discussed their putative physiological relevance. We identified a total of 401 Aqp sequences in 27 annelid species, including 367 sequences previously unrecognized as Aqps. Similar to vertebrates, phylogenetic tree reconstructions clustered these annelid Aqps in four clades: AQP1-like, AQP3-like, AQP8-like and AQP11-like. We found no clear indication of the existence of paralogs exclusive to annelids; however, several gene duplications seem to have occurred in the ancestors of some Sedentaria annelid families, mainly in the AQP1-like clade. Three of the six Aqps annotated in Alitta succinea, an estuarine annelid showing high salinity tolerance, were validated by RT-PCR sequencing, and their similarity to human AQPs was investigated at the level of “key” conserved residues and predicted three-dimensional structure. Our results suggest a diversification of the structures and functions of AQPs in Annelida comparable to that observed in other taxa.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Mehdi Talebi

Context: Compare the effect of different ecological conditions on phenotypical traits of Phlomis olivieri.Objective: To observe morphological variation between and within different populations of Phlomis olivieri Benth.Materials and Methods: Morphological characters of eleven populations of Phlomis olivieri were investigated in the both levels: between and within populations. Samples were collected from different parts of Iran and from each population, 3 to 4 samples were elected randomly and sixteen quantitative and qualitative morphological traits from the both vegetative and reproductive organs were examined.Results: Analysis of variance test as well as one-sample test confirmed significant variations for quantitative morphological traits. Morphological features varied between populations, consequently populations were separated from each other in the UPGMA tree and also PCO and PCA plots, among these, populations K, A, D and B placed far from others. Some degrees of polymorphism in morphological traits occurred within populations and individuals of each stand separated from others.Conclusion: This study showed that ecological factors had strong effect on morphological features of different populations of same plant species. This phenomenon was called phenotypic plasticity which created infraspecific variations at both levels interpopulation and intrapopulation or morphological polymorphism among populations.J. bio-sci. 22: 59-67, 2014


Author(s):  
M. Boublik ◽  
W. Hellmann ◽  
F. Jenkins

The present knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of ribosomes is far too limited to enable a complete understanding of the various roles which ribosomes play in protein biosynthesis. The spatial arrangement of proteins and ribonuclec acids in ribosomes can be analysed in many ways. Determination of binding sites for individual proteins on ribonuclec acid and locations of the mutual positions of proteins on the ribosome using labeling with fluorescent dyes, cross-linking reagents, neutron-diffraction or antibodies against ribosomal proteins seem to be most successful approaches. Structure and function of ribosomes can be correlated be depleting the complete ribosomes of some proteins to the functionally inactive core and by subsequent partial reconstitution in order to regain active ribosomal particles.


Author(s):  
Robert Glaeser ◽  
Thomas Bauer ◽  
David Grano

In transmission electron microscopy, the 3-dimensional structure of an object is usually obtained in one of two ways. For objects which can be included in one specimen, as for example with elements included in freeze- dried whole mounts and examined with a high voltage microscope, stereo pairs can be obtained which exhibit the 3-D structure of the element. For objects which can not be included in one specimen, the 3-D shape is obtained by reconstruction from serial sections. However, without stereo imagery, only detail which remains constant within the thickness of the section can be used in the reconstruction; consequently, the choice is between a low resolution reconstruction using a few thick sections and a better resolution reconstruction using many thin sections, generally a tedious chore. This paper describes an approach to 3-D reconstruction which uses stereo images of serial thick sections to reconstruct an object including detail which changes within the depth of an individual thick section.


Author(s):  
T.D. Pollard ◽  
P. Maupin

In this paper we review some of the contributions that electron microscopy has made to the analysis of actin and myosin from nonmuscle cells. We place particular emphasis upon the limitations of the ultrastructural techniques used to study these cytoplasmic contractile proteins, because it is not widely recognized how difficult it is to preserve these elements of the cytoplasmic matrix for electron microscopy. The structure of actin filaments is well preserved for electron microscope observation by negative staining with uranyl acetate (Figure 1). In fact, to a resolution of about 3nm the three-dimensional structure of actin filaments determined by computer image processing of electron micrographs of negatively stained specimens (Moore et al., 1970) is indistinguishable from the structure revealed by X-ray diffraction of living muscle.


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