What we expect you to know

Terminology

You should know, what these terms mean and you should be able to explain them in your own words.

cell differentiation . heterocysts . modularity . transpiration . buyoancy . planctic . benthic . xeromorphosis . cormophytes . Telome Theory by Zimmermann . Calamites . haplonts . diplonts . haplodiplonts . dikaryon . preadaptation . Gymnosperms . Angiosperms . double fertilisation . sepals . petals . anthers . carpels . functional shift . moonlighting function . chemical ecology . Paleoherb Hypothesis . Woody Magnoliid Hypothesis . carnivory .

02 Key Points of Plant Evolution: Exercise

1. In the benthic (sessile) marine flora alng the shoreline there is a clear zonation of green and red algae.

  • Who is top, who is bottom?
  • Why is this like this?

2. How would the number of heterocysts change, when you overexpress hetN in the cyanobacterium Anabaena?

3. Developmental mutations are often caused by loss of function of transcription factors. Therefore these mutations are recessive. To screen such mutations in the model plant Arabidopsis, requires that the population is self-fertilised to get homozygotes. You have found in the moss Physcomitrella a mutant, where the leaflets of the gametophyte are deformed. What percentage of the offspring of this plant will show this phenotype?

4. What is the difference in endosperm ploidy between a pine tree (Pinus), a cherry tree (Prunus), and the Tree of the Traveller (Ravenala).

5. Water Lilies are considered as ancient Angiosperms. Which of the following pollinators was most probably doing the job?

  • honey bees
  • beetles
  • bats
  • wind