Artificial flower UV exposure selection experiment

Knowledge graph centered on Artificial flower UV exposure selection experiment with 71 nodes and 151 connections. Top connected: Hummingbird, Bombus, Ipomopsis, Delphinium, I. aggregata.

Method synopsis

Controlled experiment using artificial flowers with discrete bullseye phenotypes exposed to UV-present vs UV-absent treatments to test UV-mediated selection on floral traits. Pollen viability measured as fitness component.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 7 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Floral pigmentation patterns provide an example of Gloger’s rule in plants (2015), Nature Plants. The protocol was originally introduced by The Timing of Floral Color Change in Lupinus argenteus (2005). Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Artificial flower preparation
   Created artificial flowers with three discrete bullseye sizes (small <20% UV proportion, medium, large >80% UV proportion) using yellow UV-reflective and UV-absorbing materials. Flowers were phenotypically identical in overall size and human-visible color.
   Quantities: Three bullseye size categories, multiple replicates per treatmentDuration: Flower construction periodConditions: Laboratory construction conditions
   Equipment: UV-reflective materials, UV-absorbing materials, Yellow pigments
2. UV exposure experiments
   Exposed artificial flowers to UV-present vs UV-absent treatments using controlled lighting. UV treatment provided 6 hours light/12-h dark/6-h light cycle with full-spectrum including UV. UV-absent treatment used same protocol with UV wavelengths filtered out.
   Quantities: 71 plants sampled, flowers exposed individually, 4-6 flowers per plantDuration: 6 hours light exposure periods with 12-h dark intervalConditions: Growth chamber conditions at 15°C day/night temperature
   Equipment: Growth chambers, Full-spectrum UV lighting, UV filters, Timer controls
3. Pollen viability assessment
   After UV exposure, scored pollen germination in vitro as measure of male fitness. Removed pollen from exposed flowers and assessed germination success under standardized conditions. Calculated relative pollen viability as fitness component.

Typical Equipment

• Growth chambers
• Full-spectrum UV lighting
• UV filters
• Microscopes

Output Measurements

• pollen viability
• selection coefficients
• fitness differentials

Papers Using This Protocol (7)

Species Studied With This Protocol