Breeding systems in plants refer to the variety of ways plants answer the general question of ‘Who mates with whom’ by answering specific questions such as whether flowers mature at the same time, whether a plant has more than one kind of flower or differs from other plants in types of flowers, and whether there are chemicals that keep certain plants from mating with each other.

Most vertebrate species consist of separate male and female individuals. In contrast, the majority of flowering plants are hermaphroditic, with both pollen and ovules produced by the same plant. As a consequence, many flowering plants are capable of self-fertilization (selfing), with seeds resulting from pollen and eggs produced by the same plant. The self pollen that fertilizes the egg may be produced by the same flower (called autogamy) or by different flowers on the same plant (geitonogamy). Selfing or mating among close relatives (inbreeding) often results in offspring that have reduced vigor and produce fewer offspring compared to offspring from matings between unrelated plants (outcrossing). This reduction in fitness of selfed offspring relative to outcrossed offspring is referred to as inbreeding depression. If both selfing levels and levels of inbreeding depression are high, natural selection may favor mechanisms that promote outcrossing. High levels of inbreeding depression are likely to be found in populations that have been outcrossing for a long time. In contrast, in populations that have been inbreeding (high selfing rates) for many generations, inbreeding depression levels may now be low because harmful genes have already been eliminated from the population by natural selection.
Selfing may also have direct advantages. Selfing plants may have an automatic selection advantage and contribute more genes to the next generation because they contribute both maternal genes (through the egg) and paternal genes (through pollen) to selfed seeds, and they also contribute pollen (and thus paternal genes) to other plants, spreading their genes further. In contrast, outcrossing plants contribute pollen to other plants, but only maternal genes to their own seeds. This automatic selection advantage will lead to selection for selfing if selfing does not decrease outcrossing (thereby limiting the spread of genes), and if inbreeding depression is not too severe. In addition, selfing tends to produce offspring more similar to the parent plant than outcrossing. If seeds are dispersed locally into habitat similar to that of the parent, these selfed offspring may do better than outcrossed offspring. In habitats where pollen is limited because of low population density or because there are few pollinators, selfing may also provide reproductive assurance with a guaranteed source of pollen. Some plants, such as touch-me-not (Impatiens) and some violet species (Viola) have evolved flowers that are pollinated autogamously and never open (called cleistogamy), as well as the more showy open flowers (chasmogamy).

Pollination is a process involving flowers (the pollen source and stigma receiver) and a pollination vector (an agent carrying pollen to the stigma). The study of pollination is an interdisciplinary field involving botany (the plant side) and some other field (the vector side). In some ways, then, it is an ecological discipline.

‘Time and again, it has been proved that you cannot deal with terror with ordinary laws, you have to have tough measures to fight the scourge.’

HYDERABAD: In two near-simultaneous terror attacks, around 34 people were killed and 50 injured in two explosions at a crowded park and a popular eating joint here on Sunday evening, three months after the Mecca Masjid blasts. This time the target were Hyderabad’s Lumbini Park and the Gokul Chat, both being well crowded corners of the city esp. on Saturday evening. The blasts were implanted for around 7:30 -7:45 pm. However, the cause behind the second blast was not clear and some reports said that the Gokul Chat blast was actually a cylinder blast.
But the death toll seems to increase by the end of the investigation of the forensics, police and the government.The recent death tolls to 42.

While the Gokul chat, a major hob for all food freaks, is situated in Kochi locality, the second target point was the Lumbini Park, an open air auditorium, located on Lumbini Park, opposite of the secretariat, situated in the heart of the city. Moreover, in the open air auditorium, laser show was going on as per the reports. The injured people have been taken to Usmania hospital and other nearby hospitals.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh, who both visited the blast sites, said it appeared to be a terrorist act. A red alert was sounded across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

With this menace, the red alerts have been in secured in neighbouring state Karnataka and metros like Mumbai and Delhi in the wake of the blasts. The National Bomb Diffusing squad has been made by the Central Govt. and sent to various suspected places.

Senior police and central intelligence officials indicated that the explosives used in today’s well-planned blasts were similar to those employed in Mecca Masjid explosions which claimed 11 lives in May this year.

Home Minister K Jana Reddy said about 500 people were in the auditorium at the time of the incident.

The blast ripped through the middle row of the auditorium when the show had just begun. So powerful was the blast that some of bodies were flung into the air and lay scattered. Further reports and investigations of CBI focus on the facts are yet to be concretized out.
As of now, Central security agencies assume that banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami militant outfit of Bangladesh is possibly behind the twin blast in Hyderabad in which more than 30 people were killed.

Sources in New Delhi said that there could be similarities between the explosives used in Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in May this year and tonight’s explosion.
It was suspected that Shahid and Bilal, who were the masterminds of the Meacca Masjid blast, were also behind tonight’s explosion.
Shahid is reported to be in Karachi and is instrumental in bringing people for arms training from Hyderabad.

CBI has already procured a red-corner notice from Interpol against Shahid.

The PM Manmohan Singh has condemned the twin blast occurred in Hyderabad. The reports said that the timers were used to trigger the blast.The BJP, on Saturday night, blamed the Central government’s handling of internal security for the Hyderabad bombings and sought a high-level investigation into the explosion.

‘We have been constantly warning the Centre that it should take adequate measures to strengthen internal security, but the Congress-led government has never bothered to rein in terror. These condemnable blasts appear yet another act of terror in the face of the UPA’s soft approach on terrorism,’ senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

The BJP leader maintained that the government was required to revive anti-terror laws to combat the scourge.