Separated by pollinators, the key is in color

2003/11/18 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika

The red flower of the image is Mimulus cardinalis and the lower, pink, Mimulus lewisii. Both live in the same geographical environment: In the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Both plants have very similar flowers but, however, have different pollinating animals: M. cardinalis pollinates the hummingbird and M. Lewisis bees.

The apparent difference between the flowers of these two plant species is color, so researchers at Michigan State University thought that the pollinator chooses the flower according to its color. And to demonstrate that conviction they exchanged between the two plants the YUP gene that encodes the color of the flower: M. Cardinalisi He was given the Lewisii gene and vice versa. As a result, M. cardinals managed to have dark pink flowers and M. Let Lewisis have orange flowers.

Hybrid plants were installed in their original place of residence, where hummingbirds approached M. lewisis and bees to M. cardinalis. A behavior that seems atypical shows that the color of the flower attracts the pollinator.

The pollination of plants with flowers of different colors by different animals has interesting consequences, since in this way the reproduction between them has been avoided, which has allowed both plant species to be increasingly separated physically.

Photo: Nature