Project description:Survey of post pollination events in a sexually deceptive orchid (Ophrys fusca): a transcriptional approach Pollination through deception is a widespread phenomenon in angiosperm, and is extremely common in Orchidaceae family. One of the most striking pollination mechanism in orchids is known as sexual deception, in which flowers lure pollinators by foraging chemical (sex pheromones), visual (e.g. labellum colour and/or shape) and tactile (e.g. labellum pilosity) cues of the female insect pollinator. Ophrys has been used as a model genus to study sexual deception mechanism, mainly regarding chemical analysis in plant-insect association. Study was focused on Ophrys fusca, a species widely distributed in Mediterranean Basin. The main objective rely on Ophrys fusca gene expression study after pollination, through a transcriptional approach using cDNA microarrays. In order to evaluate pollination enhanced events, two different time points were selected: 2 days and 4 days after pollination. Ophrys fusca plants were sampled from a Portuguese natural occurring population. Plants were covered with a white and inert net, built specially for preventing pollinator’s visits in both pollinated and unpollinated flowers. Cross- pollination was performed manually with a sterile plastic stick. Five biological replicates (5 plants in each replicate) from each condition (pollinated and unpollinated) were collected in each time-point Flowers that demonstrate strict pollination regulation, as orchids, provide an excellent model system to unravel pollination- elicited mechanisms (i.e. petal senescence, pigmentation changes, ovary growth). Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the overall knowledge on orchid pollination biology, which is still lacking.
