Home
Mission
Overview of Project
Project Staff
Sponsors
Achievements
Checking, Illustrations
Upcoming Activities
Id and Species Lists
Protea Information
Protea Gallery
Growing Proteas
Interim Dist. Maps
Publications
Afrikaanse Inligting
Homobox genes from the Asteraceae inserted into the Pincushion genome
This
in an interesting modification. It appears that the homobox genes
from the Asteraceae have been inserted into the Pincushion genome and the
promoter region modified for expression only in the terminal flower
primeordia. Of course, this is not the first instance of such a
phenomenon in the Proteaceae. In fact, it has been proposed that the
name "Protea" was used by Linnaeus based on an illustration of
Boerhaave, in which the Leucadendron pubescens cone developed from the
centre of the Protea aurea flowerhead. Might I propose the name Proteastra
for the plant. This can be variously interpreted using protean as
the base "variable star" or "changeable star" or
using proto as the base as "first star" or "elementary
star" or even using protest as the base as "dissenting
star".
Tony Rebelo (November 2005)
Back Protea Ecology