Genetic and molecular characterization of bud dormancy in apple: deciphering candidate gene roles in dormancy regulation.

Dormancy is an adaptive mechanism that enables plants to survive unfavorable climatic conditions, for example during winter, and allows flowering to occur only when the conditions are more permissive, typically in spring

Gene expression analysis reveals important pathways for drought response in leaves and roots of a wheat cultivar adapted to rainfed cropping in the Cerrado Biome.

Abstract Drought limits wheat production in the Brazilian Cerrado biome. In order to search for candidate genes associated to the response to water deficit, we analyzed the gene expression profiles, under severe drought stress, in roots and leaves of the cultivar MGS1 Aliança, a well-adapted cultivar to the Cerrado. A set of 4,422 candidate genes was found in roots and leaves. The number of down-regulated transcripts in roots was higher than the up-regulated transcripts, while the opposite occurred in leaves. The number of common transcripts between the two tissues was 1,249, while 2,124 were specific to roots and 1,049 specific to leaves. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed a 0.78 correlation with the expression data. The candidate genes were distributed across all chromosomes and component genomes, but a greater number was mapped on the B genome, particularly on chromosomes 3B, 5B and 2B. When considering both tissues, 116 different pathways were induced. One common pathway, among the top three activated pathways in both tissues, was starch and sucrose metabolism. These results pave the way for future marker development and selection of important genes and are useful for understanding the metabolic pathways involved in wheat drought response

Molecular and genetic characterization of dormancy-associated and flowering-time related MADS-box transcription factors in apple.

The production of temperature fruits such as apple (Malus x domestica Borkh) is closely related to the dormancy process, an adaptative plant survival mechanism to unfavorable climatic conditions