tailieunhanh - Báo cáo sinh học: "The mathematics of sexual attraction"

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: The mathematics of sexual attraction. | Feijó Journal of Biology 2010 9 18 http content 9 3 18 Journal of Biology MINIREVIEW L__ The mathematics of sexual attraction José A Feijó See research article http 1471-2229 10 32 Abstract Pollen tubes follow attractants secreted by the ovules. In a recent paper in BMC Plant Biology Stewman and colleagues have quantified the parameters of this attraction and used them to calibrate a mathematical model that reproduces the process and enables predictions on the nature of the female attractant and the mechanisms of the male response. Darwin referred to the rapid success of flowering plants in evolution as an abominable mystery. A great deal of this success relies on the peculiar ways of sexual reproduction that they have evolved. The facts that delight us and spark our curiosity about the sexual behavior of animals in fact the essence of many novels -attraction deception chemistry male competition female selection abortion death and sacrifice - take place just below our noses every time we appreciate the fine scent of a flower. The lovers usually invisible to the eye are the male and female gametophytes the pollen grain and the embryo sac the plot occurs inside the female reproductive organs collectively known as the pistil Figure 1 . The final act involves the irresistible attraction to the ovule through specific molecules leading inevitably to the altruistic self-sacrifice of the pollen tube cell which explodes to deliver the sperm cells to the embryo sac. Ever since Linnaeus the process has intrigued biologists and although the fundamental basis of the interactions were understood in the 19th century by researchers such as Robert Brown Giovanni Battista Amici Darwin and Sergei Nawaschin 1 the molecular nature of this fatal attraction is only now beginning to be understood 2 . Mathematics is now being used to Correspondence jfeijo@ Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência P-2780-156 Oeiras Portugal and Universidade de Lisboa