Exclusion of bird pollinators impacts mating system and reduces offspring fitness in a pollination-generalist tree.

Background And Aims: Compared to pollinating insects and non-flying mammals (NFM), nectarivorous birds may display behaviours leading to greater pollen carryover. Therefore, plants pollinated by birds may display higher levels of paternal diversity and outcrossing than those pollinated by insects and NFM, with associated fitness benefits for seeds and seedlings. Here, we test these predictions using a plant where birds, insects and NFM are all frequent visitors to flowers.

Experimental comparison of the genetic component of pollinator effectiveness in a shrub pollinated by birds, non-flying mammals and European honeybees.

The range and frequency of pollinator movement, influences patterns of pollen dispersal with consequences for plant mating. It is predicted that pollination by birds promotes outcrossing and multiple paternity. Alternatively, pollination by insects or non-flying mammals (NFMs) is expected to increase inbreeding and correlation of paternity, leading to less genetically diverse and less vigorous seedlings.

Evolutionary origin of the type 2 corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor γ splice variant.

Many G protein-coupled receptors have splice variants, with potentially different pharmaceutical properties, expression patterns and roles. The human brain expresses three functional splice variants of the type 2 corticotropin-releasing hormone: CRHR2α, -β and -γ. CRHR2γ has only been reported in humans, but its phylogenetic distribution, and how and when during mammalian evolution it arose, is unknown.