Possible mechanisms behind the light-induced wilting of dark-germinated pea (Pisum sativum L.) epicotyls were studied. Illumination with photosynthetically active radiation caused a fast turgor loss and wilting in the middle segments of the epicotyls accompanied by accumulation of water in the intercellular cavities. During this process, room temperature fluorescence emission spectra showed gra...

Senescence of carnation petals is accompanied by autocatalytic ethylene production and wilting of the petals; the former is caused by the expression of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) synthase and ACC oxidase genes and the latter is related to the expression of a cysteine proteinase (CPase) gene. CPase is probably responsible for the degradation of proteins, leading to the decomposition...

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), although native to Brazil, is still underutilized, especially when it comes to using its aerial part. In order to study the potential of the cassava plant for use as animal feed, the present work evaluated the characteristics of the aerial part of cassava when submitted to the processes of ensiling and haymaking. Treatments consisted of: aerial part of the pl...

There is considerable disagreement as to whether or not water is equally available to plants in drying soil over the entire range from field capacity to wilting percentage. Some workers have repeatedly stated that water is equally available over this range (5, 18, 23, 24) while considerable data have accumulated which indicate that physiological processes in plants are altered as a result of de...

Recent advances in soybean breeding have resulted in genotypes that express the slow-wilting phenotype (trait) under drought stress conditions. The physiological mechanisms of this trait remain unknown due to the complexity of trait × environment interactions. The objective of this research was to investigate nitrogen metabolism and leaf and seed nutrients composition of the slow-wilting soybea...

Senescence of carnation flowers is characterized by autocatalytic ethylene production from petals and subsequent wilting of the petals. Recent studies on the regulation of ethylene production and wilting in senescing carnation petals revealed that (1) petal senescence is triggered by ethylene evolved from the gynoecium during natural senescence, (2) ethylene production in the gynoecium is induc...

In flowering plants, the onset and duration of female receptivity vary among species. In several species the receptive structures wilt upon pollination. Here we explore the hypothesis that postpollination wilting may be influenced by pollen and serve as a general means to secure paternity of the pollen donor at the expense of female fitness. Taking a game-theoretical approach, we examine the po...

Petal wilting and/or abscission terminates the life of the flower. However, how wilting and abscission are coordinated is not fully understood. There is wide variation in the extent to which petals wilt before abscission, even between cultivars of the same species. For example, tepals of Lilium longiflorum wilt substantially, while those of the closely related Lilium longiflorum×Asiatic hybrid ...

The effect of wilting on proline synthesis, proline oxidation, and protein synthesis-all of which contribute to proline accumulation-was determined in nonstarved barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) leaves. Nonstarved leaves were from plants previously in the light for 24 hours and starved leaves were from plants previously in the dark for 48 hours. Wilted leaves from nonstarved plants accumulated proli...