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Schlagwörter:
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Zusammenfassung:
Ecological interactions between flowers and pollinators are all about timing. Flower
opening/closing and scent emissions are largely synchronized with pollinator activity,
and a circadian clock regulates these rhythms. However, whether the circadian clock
increases a plant’s reproductive success by regulating these floral rhythms remains
untested. Flowers of Nicotiana attenuata, a wild tobacco, diurnally and rhythmically
open, emit scent and move vertically through a 140º arc to interact with nocturnal
hawkmoths. We tethered flowers to evaluate the importance of flower positions for
Manduca sexta-mediated pollinations; flower position dramatically influenced
pollination. We examined the pollination success of phase-shifted flowers, silenced in
circadian clock genes, NaZTL, NaLHY, and NaTOC1, by RNAi. Circadian rhythms in
N. attenuata flowers are responsible for altered seed set from outcrossed pollen.
