Flower initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana under noninductive short-day conditions is dependent on the biosynthesis of the plant hormone gibberellin (GA). This dependency can be explained, at least partly, by GA regulation of the flower meristem identity gene LEAFY (LFY) and the flowering time gene SUPPRESSOR OF CONSTANS1. Although it is well established that GA4 is the active GA in the regulati...

Chlorophytum arundinaceum is an important medicinal plant and its tuberous roots are used for various health ailment treatments. It has become an endangered species in the Eastern Ghats, and a rare medicinal herb in India, due to its excessive collection from its natural habitat and its destructive harvesting techniques, coupled with poor seed germination and low vegetative multiplication ratio...

Activation of aspartate-specific cysteine proteases (caspases) plays a crucial role in programmed cell death (PCD) in animals. Although to date caspases have not been identified in plants, caspase-like activity was described in tobacco during a hypersensitive response to pathogens and in Arabidopsis and tomato cell cultures during chemical-induced PCD. Caspase-like activity was also detected in...

BACKGROUND Aloe vera L. is an important pharmaceutical plant from which several medicinal and cosmetic compounds are extracted. Aloe is naturally propagated through offset, which is a slow and expensive labor cost method with low economical income. OBJECTIVES In this study, the effect of different media on shoot proliferation of the shoot tip of Aloe vera L. was investigated. MATERIALS AND ...

Current methods for determining the influence of xylem cavitation on hydraulic conductance are limited to unbranched stem or root segments with hydraulic conductances above c. 2 mmol s~ MPa . Lower conductances and/or highly branched systems are encountered in seedlings, arid-land shrubs, herbs, and distal portions of shoot and root systems of trees. In order to quantify the hydraulic impact of...

Rice (Oryza sativa) is sensitive to salinity, which affects one-fifth of irrigated land worldwide. Reducing sodium and chloride uptake into rice while maintaining potassium uptake are characteristics that would aid growth under saline conditions. We describe genetic determinants of the net quantity of ions transported to the shoot, clearly distinguishing between quantitative trait loci (QTL) fo...

As a plant shoot matures, it transitions through a series of growth phases in which successive aerial organs undergo distinct developmental changes. This process of phase change is known to be influenced by gibberellins (GAs). We report the identification of a putative transcription factor, GLABROUS INFLORESCENCE STEMS (GIS), which regulates aspects of shoot maturation in Arabidopsis thaliana. ...

In Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don each tissue is known to produce a distinct spectrum of terpenoid indole alkaloids. Since the invaluable antineoplastic bisindole alkaloids are restricted to the aerial parts of the plant and do not occur in its underground tissues, identification of the structural and regulatory factors operating distinctly in the shoot/leaf of the plant will be a necessity fo...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In angiosperms, the shoot apical meristem produces a shoot system composed of stems, leaves and axillary buds. Podostemoideae, one of three subfamilies of the river-weed family Podostemaceae, have a unique 'shoot' that lacks a shoot apical meristem and is composed only of leaves. Tristichoideae have been interpreted to have a shoot apical meristem, although its branching pat...

Plants have a profound capacity to regenerate organs from differentiated somatic tissues, based on which propagating plants in vitro was made possible. Beside its use in biotechnology, in vitro shoot regeneration is also an important system to study de novo organogenesis. Phytohormones and transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS) play critical roles in this process but whether and how epigenetic modi...