Incidence and post-pollination mechanisms of nonrandom mating in Arabidopsis thaliana

Compatible pollinations from many differenttaxa display nonrandom mating. Here we describe a systemfor examining questions of nonrandom mating in Arabidopsisthaliana. Using this system, we demonstrate thatArabidopsis thaliana displays nonrandom mating betweendistinct accessions. Statistical analysis of these data demonstratesaspects of both pollen competition and male–female complementarity in these matings. Cytologicalexperiments implicate pollen germination and pollen tubegrowth rates as possible causal factors in these nonrandommating efficiencies

Imagining Boundaries: (Post) Humanist Understandings and Ecological Ethics in the Fiction of Margaret Atwood

Atwood’s concern for the environment has spanned nearly the entirety of her career, informing her fears about the future and providing the grounding for her speculative fiction. In Atwood’s understanding, ecological ruin stems from human estrangement from the natural environment, an estrangement fortified by capitalism and consumerism in contemporary societies. Instead, she strives to situate the creative, imaginative human species within a larger natural order that inspires ethical treatment of the more-than-human world. Atwood attempts to provide us with a model of interconnection and respect for nature that we must imagine if we desire to avoid the apocalyptic future she describes in her novels. This paper will investigate three of Atwood’s novels that address issues concerning our interactions with nature and the effects of technology. In Oryx and Crake, humanist and posthumanist understandings of the world cannot provide individuals with meaning in their radically altered environment. In The Year of the Flood, the second of Atwood’s trilogy, we are introduced to the God’s Gardeners, who demonstrate how new ethical systems can be enacted within specific subcultural spaces. From their space on the Edencliff Rooftop Garden, the Gardeners have a critical vantage point by which to view society and resist the controlling aspects of corporation run state. Atwood gives us a model by which to imagine enacting change in our own society, and the ethical system that must be implemented if we wish to avoid ecological ruin. Finally, I turn to Atwood’s second novel, Surfacing, to end my discussion. Surfacing demonstrates that Atwood does not believe that returning to nature is the answer to ecological problems and the ills of society. The dissatisfaction at the end of the novel hints at the necessity of humans to exist within communities, as well as the affirmation of traits specific to the human – creativity and the imagination. The image of personal survival depicted by Surfacing does not allow for large-scale political or social change. The answer to our dissatisfaction is not to return to nature, but to, like the God’s Gardeners, find a way to be both social and natural – the human animal

Defining the Genetic Architecture Underlying Female- and Male-Mediated Nonrandom Mating and Seed Yield Traits in Arabidopsis1[OA]

Postpollination nonrandom mating among compatible mates is a widespread phenomenon in plants and is genetically undefined. In this study, we used the recombinant inbred line (RIL) population between Landsberg erecta and Columbia (Col) accessions of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) to define the genetic architecture underlying both female- and male-mediated nonrandom mating traits. To map the genetic loci responsible for male-mediated nonrandom mating, we performed mixed pollinations with Col and RIL pollen on Col pistils. To map the genetic loci responsible for female-mediated nonrandom mating, we performed mixed pollinations with Col and Landsberg erecta pollen on RIL pistils. With these data, we performed composite interval mapping to identify two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control male-mediated nonrandom mating. We detected epistatic interactions between these two loci. We also explored female- and male-mediated traits involved in seed yield in mixed pollinations. We detected three female QTLs and one male QTL involved in directing seed number per fruit. To our knowledge, the results of these experiments represent the first time the female and male components of seed yield and nonrandom mating have been separately mapped