The timing of flowering during the year is an important adaptive character affecting reproductive success in plants and is critical to crop yield. Flowering time has been extensively manipulated in crops such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) during domestication, and this enables them to grow productively in a wide range of environments. Several major genes controlling flowering time have been i...

The transition from vegetative growth to reproductive development is a complex process that requires an integrated response to multiple environmental cues and endogenous signals. In Arabidopsis thaliana, which has a facultative requirement for vernalization and long days, the genes of the autonomous pathway function as floral promoters by repressing the central repressor and vernalization-regul...

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris altissima) is a biennial root crop with an absolute requirement for cold exposure to bolt and flower, a process called vernalization. Global DNA methylation variations have been reported during vernalization in several plants. However, few genes targeted by DNA methylation during vernalization have been described. The objectives of this study were to identify different...

A total of 205 wheat cultivars from the Yellow and Huai valley of China were used to identify allelic variations of vernalization and photoperiod response genes, as well as the copy number variations (CNVs) of Ppd-B1 and Vrn-A1 genes. A novel Vrn-D1 allele with 174-bp insertion in the promoter region of the recessive allele vrn-D1 was discovered in three Chinese wheat cultivars and designated a...

• Response to low temperature during early growth in cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and its wild progenitor C. reticulatum was investigated to clarify the evolutionary processes under domestication in this crop. • Parental lines and their F2 and F3 progeny were exposed to cold treatment (4°C) for 30°d after seed imbibition and compared with controls. • Cold treatment caused a 19-d advanc...

Thellungiella halophila (T. halophila) (salt cress) is a close relative of Arabidopsis and a model plant for salt tolerance research. However, the nature of its later flowering causes some difficulties in genetic analysis. The FRIGIDA (FRI) gene plays a key role in the Arabidopsis vernalization flowering pathway, whose homolog in T. halophila may also be a key factor in controlling flowering ti...

cold tolerance is an adaptative mechanism that plants in temperate climates require to survive and grow in suboptimal temperatures.  exposed plant to low temperature produces a myriad of measurable changes in biochemical characters that are often highly correlated with plant cold tolerance.  a key element of cereal adaptation to cold is represented by the capacity for physiological adjustments ...