Broccoli contains bioactive molecules and thus its consumption is related with the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases. The application of wounding stress to horticultural crops is a common practice, since it is the basis for the fresh-cut produce industry. In this study, the effect of four different cutting styles (CSs) (florets (CS1), florets cut into two even pieces (CS2), floret...

Nectar-related traits influence the number of bee visits to sunflowers, but effects floret size on diversity and composition communities are unknown. In 4 year × planting date combinations, bees were collected from sunflowers with small (< 7.5 mm), medium (7.5–9 or large (> 9 mm) florets, counts foraging used clarify responses plant traits. No effect was found, associations tongue length led di...

A shipment of Fults alkaligrass seed (Puccinellia distans) grown in Washington state containing bunted florets was intercepted by quarantine officials at China's Tianjin Entry-Exit Quarantine and Inspection Bureau. The bunted florets were filled with irregularly shaped, reticulately ornamented teliospores that germinated in a manner characteristic of systemically infecting Tilletia spp. on gras...

Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus renifolius) blooms in early spring and its inflorescence, referred to as the spadix, can produce enough heat to melt snow. Here, we investigated glycolytic carbon flow at the PEP branch-point in thermogenic spadices. Our analyses revealed that petals and pistils in thermogenic florets exhibited higher expression of SrPEPC and SrAOX transcripts than those of SrPK, SrP...

UV-C (254 nm)- and UV-B (280-320 nm)-light were irradiated onto bright-yellow capitula of dyer's saffron and their effects on carthamine accumulation compared. UV-C light promotes reddening of florets more prominently than UV-B light, yielding higher amounts of carthamine after the radiation process. The enhancement of carthamine synthesis by UV-C light was investigated on cellulose columns loa...

Broccoli contains high levels of bioactive molecules and is considered a functional food. In this study, postharvest treatments to enhance the concentration of glucosinolates and phenolic compounds were evaluated. Broccoli whole heads were wounded to obtain florets and wounded florets (florets cut into four even pieces) and stored for 24 h at 20 °C with or without exogenous ethylene (ET, 1000 p...

Wheat yield depends on the number of grains per square metre, which in turn is related to the number of fertile florets at anthesis. The dynamics of floret generation/degeneration were studied in contrasting conditions of nitrogen (N) and water availability of modern, well-adapted, durum wheats in order to understand further the bases for grain number determination. Experiments were carried ou...

Sulforaphane, an isothiocyanate from broccoli, is one of the most potent food-derived anticarcinogens. This compound is not present in the intact vegetable, rather it is formed from its glucosinolate precursor, glucoraphanin, by the action of myrosinase, a thioglucosidase enzyme, when broccoli tissue is crushed or chewed. However, a number of studies have demonstrated that sulforaphane yield fr...

Sex determination in maize involves the production of staminate and pistillate florets from an initially bisexual floral meristem. Pistil elimination in staminate florets requires jasmonic acid signaling, and functional pistils are protected by the action of the silkless 1 (sk1) gene. The sk1 gene was identified and found to encode a previously uncharacterized family 1 uridine diphosphate glyco...

During senescence of broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) florets (flower buds), the rate of ethylene production increased, almost paralleling the rapid increase in 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) oxidase activity. The increase in ACC oxidase activity was strongly suppressed by the administration of cycloheximide, suggesting that it may have resulted from the de novo synthesis o...