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Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

Microarthropods mediate sperm transfer in mosses

Author

  • Nils Cronberg
  • Rayna Natcheva
  • Katarina Hedlund

Summary, in English

Among flowering plants, animals commonly act as pollinators. We showed that fertile moss shoots attract springtails and mites, which in turn carry moss sperm, thereby enhancing the fertilization process. Previously, fertilization of mosses was thought to depend on the capacity of individual sperm to swim through a continuous water layer. The role of microarthropods in moss fertilization resembles the role of animals as pollinators of flowering plants but may be evolutionarily much older because of the antiquity of the organism groups involved.

Department/s

  • Biodiversity
  • Department of Biology
  • Soil Ecology

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

1255-1255

Publication/Series

Science

Volume

313

Issue

5791

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Topic

  • Ecology

Status

Published

Project

  • Fertilization syndromes in bryophytes

Research group

  • Soil Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1095-9203