Avocados keep a 42-million-year polling schedule
TL;DR
Avocado flowers alternate between a female phase (receiving pollen) and a subsequent male phase (releasing pollen) over two days, a two-day cycle that has remained driven by the SDMYB gene for about 42 million years. Hass is an A-type variety, and breeders are now able to create B-type pollinizers that both pollinate and bear marketable fruit, offering higher yields with some trade‑offs in fruit quality and orchard management.
- The avocado's sex life has run on the same schedule for 42 million years Boing Boing
- Groundbreaking discovery could remake California's avocado breeding SFGATE
- Study Reveals How Avocados Reverse Sexes Throughout the Day UC Davis
- California scientists find avocado gene that reveals flower type years before trees bloom Yahoo
- Jeffrey Groh in greenhouse (IMAGE) EurekAlert!
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