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Updated: May 11, 2026

Live Confocal Imaging of Developing Arabidopsis Flowers
Published on: April 1, 2017
Solving the puzzle of mirror-image flowers
Linley K Jesson1, Spencer C H Barrett
1Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
Enantiostyly is a plant sexual polymorphism in which female sex organs are deflected to the left or right -- resulting in 'mirror-image' flowers -- but, although it occurs in at least a dozen unrelated families of flowering plants, its adaptive significance has been unclear. Here we show that a mendelian locus governs the inheritance of style orientation and that this curious form of sexual asymmetry functions to promote cross-pollination in bee-pollinated plants.
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Some of Mendel’s crosses examined three pairs of contrasting characteristics. Such a cross is called a trihybrid cross. A trihybrid cross is a combination of three individual monohybrid crosses. For example, plant height (tall vs. short), seed shape (round vs. wrinkled), and seed color (yellow vs. green).
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